Break open the Champagne

This is good cause the USA is to spineless to do anything about it. Just look at no DX10 for XP. They have not changed one bit. OoXML.

The list is long and growing longer by the day.

just a couple questions I'd like to know

what?
Microsoft is easy money for them now?
they blew the $750Mill they just not too long got already? on what, pron?
and now they want more? for what, more pron?

it makes me sick everytime. if I was microsoft I'd tell them its my OS, I built it so I can put anything I want into it, if you don't like it here's my middle finger sit on it. I basicaly gave you all my APIs, I've dumbed down my OS for you, I took out my media player just for you, and now you want me to take out something that every operating system should have by default a webbrowser?

extra EU tax

Yeah! More $$$ for those bastids in European Commission

why just MS?

Apple ships safari with there OS.
Every linux dist ships a web browser as default.

Let MS sell a complete package, let the markets decide if it's wanted, you are not forced to use IE, you are not forced to use media player, you're not forced to use windows full stop!

All that happens is the end user loses because to pay any fine MS just puts up it's prices a little to pay for it!

Policemen of the world?

Is it just me or does the EU have a bit of an inferiority complex? Or are they running budget deficits and need some extra income? These fines they collect are passed on directly to the consumers, right? Just curious how much do these investigations COST the very consumers they are trying to protect via taxes and overhead, and new product costs that companies will just pass on to the consumer in the next generation product?

I wish some companies would just say screw it to the EU and say you don't think we play fair, we won't play at all in your sandbox....

Next thing you know they'll be running Linux on AMD chips unable to use Google search engines... (Did they really need to investigate/OK a merger of a non-EU company with another non-EU based company?) Why not just ban all these evil companies from doing biz in Europe and let new competition foster in a whole new world of competition, innovation and cheaper prices?

@ Pete

It's not so much that the USA is spineless, as cynical. Little has changed since the man said "What's good for General Motors is good for the USA". Only nowadays instead of GM, it's Microsoft, EDS, Halliburton, JP Morgan...

Don't expect any US administration to give those corporations the caning they so richly deserve.

@just a couple questions I'd like to know

what is it lennie?

do yo honestly think MS is fair and competitive?

That they're not abusing the power they gained for their own good?

That they're giving other companies & technologies a fair chance?

And its small people like you and me as well - i want XP, not Vista, but do i have any other choice ??

In a while everything will be Vista and you cant go anywhere else - dont tell me they're not abusing their power to shove whatever it is they want up our backside...

More EU-BS

I love how the European Union in its policies first gives up their sovereignty through accepting the appointed European Union Parliament, and then from overtaxations of its citizens.

I remember back then when the European Union attempted to get full records of Microsoft's Technical Data. I love the way that laws protecting corporations, in the case of Microsoft are almost non-existent...

Another European play to attempt to hijack technology for themselves, because Europe in the History of Computing has never really created anything significant when it comes to Operating System, so it tries to steal the most compatible system plans through Legal Manipulation, so it can later patent it and rename it somewhere else.

Do you guys remember when Microsoft was FORCED to sell XP without windows media player bundled in there? You don't see the European Union Suing Linux Developers or APPLE, but you see them suing microsoft.

If I were Microsoft, what I would do, is refuse development or deployment in Europe....Since Direct X is what people use in the way of gaming and people want something easy..In other words, not learning how to use Linux....

The result is....that by the end of the week they will BEG to have Microsoft develop their system, despite how bad vista is (which I do not run anywhere).

I wish that Microsoft would one day say "If you don't like it, then we will move elsewhere and if you want it, you can buy it from the US"

Some of you may snicker at me for typing this but, I love how Companies based in the US have to cater themselves to the rest of the world....but when you CALL tech support for any non-US company...you get some uptight EUROPEAN or CHINESE who reads his cue cards and doesn't answer your questions....

Then you tell them that you are American and they hang up on you...The next day you read some article in some magazine about EUROPEAN BREAKTHROUGHS IN BUSINESS MORALS AND ETHICS that makes me want to puke...

This really is Discrimination at its finest....There is also Extortion and Blackmail too....Since MS wont win against the EU who have the verdict in their brains before the trial starts, its better to PULL OUT OF EUROPE COMPLETELY and force internationally laws to take their natural course...

The result would be EUROPEANS having to come to an AMERICAN COURT in order to actually get what they want....JUST LIKE I have to go to a EUROPEAN court to get what I want when I have a problem WITH ANY EUROPEAN PRODUCT.

Good day

Not a big deal

I think that there is a reason why some products sell higher in Europe compared to western territories.

Its just more expensive to do business in Europe as your always getting sued. I guess Microsoft has already off set money for litigation and payoffs by upping the price of windows and other software.

With the US economy in the toilet it would be interesting is they didn't have so much of the tech industry to boost the economy. With Intel Microsoft and both the boys in Green to name a few they are doing better than they should be, now if they just started to actually make something and not reselling everything from Japan, Taiwan and China they will be doing alot better!

LOL@US posters

MS needs as much spanking as possible. And if you think they would be smart to leave europe, think again, this will lead to apple/linux to take over all that market.

First a note to those ignorant posters in this news section, first in europe there are no software patents, and second you can most of the time not buy a laptop or desktop with any other OS than windows vista. So you ARE forced to use windows.

Bit then again, not much can be spected from american posters, natural born ignorants.

then how would anyone...?

If they ship the OS without any browser on it, then how are the people going to get any browser at all? Average computer user can barely use their browser to download another browser, and EU expects them to use ftp to get a browser first? or just go to a store and buy the CD? Any OS that doesn't come with a default browser is just stupid.

Don't panic hypersterial pals

I hope you people realise that MS was sued years ago by the US DoJ over the browser monopoly and they lost, that's when they enabled the "access and defaults' menu to set you fav browser/mediaplayer/email client.

For that reason I think MS might actually win this one in the EU, in fact I think MS will simply point that out and then the investigation to the complaint by Opera will rule in MS's favour and there will be no case brought.

And what APIs did MS give....

Ok not sure if you understand what an API is and how much Microsoft is willing to protect them. Sorry dude if MS gave all their API's projects like WINE would be able to do DX10 games and .NET as well .... duh

Safari web browser is based on Gecko which is not Mac's API but an open API. As for Linux it is a bunch of separate projects ran by a bunch of separate groups, not one group. I'm just not sure if you understand what anti-competitive means it means that ONE company owns all the API's and controls their use, do you see IE offered for other OS's natively .... hmmm no except for MacOS but MS controls it and updates it. When you are a company and you want to implement any technology/service you need to have usually 3 bidding technologies.... when using MS you can't cause they don't let competitors use/modify MS owned API's and as for that matter give any info to allow competing companies to create API's that work with the OS.

Has any of the #%$ards in previous posts ever gotten into a car accident and you've had to use insurance .... what does the insurance company do to pay for the damages .... you get at least 3 quotes and they chose which one they are going to use.... this allows fair competition and spread of wealth.

I guess too many have never been in an oppressive regime so you would never know what it really means to have no competition and are extremely ignorant. Mind you I have never live in an oppressive regime, I grew up in Canada but I do read books you know what old people do with those paper squares attached together but I have had many friends from many countries of which some from such places as middle east, china, south east Asia, and USSR and the stories they have told me makes me thank god we have rules like this that never allows one group/company to ever own so much that they make change as they see fit.

Quit breathing methane and see the light of day for once... you know oxygen is good for the brain cells.

I Hate Government

It's clear that more government isn't always a good thing. Europeans expect to milk American companies for all they're worth and then complain about higher American product prices in Europe...

Consumer Protection

In the EU we have something called consumer protection. 2 bad the US only has corporate protection. You're all being sucked dry in the US, at least our governement is trying to prevent the consumer from paying 2 much, such as Apple Iphone and Microsoft software.
Land of the free and the brave, no, that's Canada. lol

Yay EU!

On behalf of the US posters, I would like to say I'm sorry. We just get behind sometimes since our professors won't let us use the internet.

If Microsoft stopped selling to Europe, then there would be no market for DirectX games in Europe. If you don't want to miss that sizable market, you'd have to program in *gasp* OpenGL. Id Software still does it, so there are still current game engines that run on OpenGL and switching is feasible. You would also have to write code that didn't rely on MS VC++ only extensions, but were more compliant and portable. Once you do these, porting games to Linux is much easier. It will happen more often, and Microsoft loses their last tangible stronghold on the market.

I do applaud the EU for actually making a company stick to their decision. We agreed with Microsoft that they couldn't remove IE from Win98, while hackers completed the task for them. Although, I would consider a media player an important part of the OS, along with a browser and an Office suite, but they don't seem to be bundling that last one. If they wanted to kick Microsoft for stifling competition, they need to go after their broken HTML support, official HTML-nonstandard, proprietary C++, and junk OOXML.

The Least They Deserve . . .

MS have caused me to become homeless, they have ruined my business of 25 years, caused me to suffer problems on a daily basis, caused my stepson to take up drugs, etc, etc. All this is due to their greed, whereby they attempted to extort money from me whilst saying "innocence is irrelevent". They deserve every penny of the penalties levied against them. And if you disagree, you should take time to investigate their business methods before you take their side. At least the Mafia admit to be criminals!