EU set to charge Microsoft over ruling breach

King Arthur said:

Protip: Freedom means having the ability to do anything you want, not being told what to do.

Not in a civil society. With Freedoms comes responsibilities. However, one of the freedoms is freedom of choice, and in that regard I agree

A Guy

bdstx4 said:

Users in the EU have a windows version that can have absolutely no Ms IE or Ms Windows Media Player installed. This bypasses large blocks of Malware possible infections. Plus other browsers are more secure and useful (extensions) than IE.
The EU governments are the only governments fighting for freedom of there
computer users. Here in the USA, Microsoft and Apple do anything they want. Our
courts rare challenge anything.

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Microsoft doesn't tell you or make you use a certain browser or movie media program. They include these extensions of their/there product operating system. You don't have to use them and many don't. They choose to use other browsers or what ever. I'm using Firefox now because I chose to use Firefox. I really didn't expect Microsoft to include Firefox with their/there operating system. Some how I fumbled through my life and found Firefox all by my self.

You all know what is Browser Choice screen right? It just makes sure that the user knows that there are other browsers, and offers easy download links for the less-computer-literate.
It works by redirecting people to this site which is always kept up-to-date and the items are shuffled every time you open it. Feel free to check, it has quite a few new browsers I never saw before you may want to try.

How does that enrage liberitarians? It enforces MS to ease the choice for dumber people. Just that.

Layback Bear said:

I understand not wanting monopolies. Their/there is a very good way to stop monopolies without using the government. The other companies stepping up to the plate and produce a better product at a better price and let the customers choose.

Mh, we all saw how this strategy went well. MS has monopoly over OS, big win for everyone, no way to undo that without massive firepower. What the EU is trying to do is keeping it from having monopoly in browsers as well.

In case you haven't noticed, EU is bashing Windows to re-implement the Browser choice screen like it had in XP. It's more like ease the choice for the less-computer literate.

It does not force users in any direction (IE was in the browser choice screen as well), just enforces the user choice. Because if they don't lots of users will not even know that there is.

You don't see apple installing a second browser on macs. You have to go find them and install them. Should be no different for windows. I smell a rat (apple) pushing this.

The market share of Apple is so low that what it does is completely irrelevant for browser markets.
Claiming that Apple has any control over EU is ridiculous as well.

I have complete faith in EU customers to make the choice of products and services all by them selfs.

It's when rethoric and faith trump hard evidence that bad smelling things hit the fan.

My work is assembling, preparing and troubleshooting PCs and peripherals. I know how dumb and naive most of my customers are.
Trusting them to make any choice about computers is a recipe for disaster.

Besides, most people coming here asking for help aren't much better anyway, so I don't see how can what you said hold water, outside in the big bad world.

The whole prevent monopoly thing never applied to this case as IE no longer had the market. The market was working fine without any interference from government....

Rules set down now work for the future as well.

Post #24
My work is assembling, preparing and troubleshooting PCs and peripherals. I know how dumb and naive most of my customers are.
Trusting them to make any choice about computers is a recipe for disaster.
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bobafetthotmail
That attitude must be a real business builder.
To me that is a insult to the consumers and as a whole the people of the EU. To presume they have the IQ concerning computers of a 3 legged pet rock and can't make their/there own choices is just plain wrong.

Layback Bear said:

Post #24
My work is assembling, preparing and troubleshooting PCs and peripherals. I know how dumb and naive most of my customers are.
Trusting them to make any choice about computers is a recipe for disaster.
----------------
bobafetthotmail
That attitude must be a real business builder.
To me that is a insult to the consumers and as a whole the people of the EU. To presume they have the IQ concerning computers of a 3 legged pet rock and can't make their/there own choices is just plain wrong.

Well I for one Test people when it comes to needing some sort of service

I wouldn't say any Consumers are dumb not to know what they are buying most of us do research

In todays economic world more people are learning how to do it themselves so this statement holds no water

I know you heard of people acting dumb and i have done it for the sake of seeing what i would be offered before i spoke up about it

You might think your customer has no clue but sometimes they might know more then you and call you on it .....I do all the time and leave people with a red face

This silly little lawsuit over the EU and MS practices will always be a issue MS controls atleast 90% of everything out there and most of Businesses run off there software of course it has security issues sometimes people hacking deploying malware and that is because it has been the most common UI around for over 2 decades and reality is not to many people like change and when you shake the soda can and open it goes boom in your face

Don't change what isn't broken my Opinion

SIW2 said:

I don't think the general public have the time or the inclination to find out anything about computing.

They just click at whatever and expect it to work.

Nothing odd about that.

Most of us know very little about how cars work.

We just expect them to do the job - any odd noises or dodgy behaviour and we take it to a garage.

Same thing.

I would say most that hang on to the Smartphones they will never get into major Pc learning

What I noticed that more and more Average Joe's are Building and making it a Hobby

Retired Seniors and people in there 80's are Using computers better then younger generations

My dad is 75 I might have shown him how to get around a few things but once he had a custom rig built the man doesn't leave it has a vcr tv tunner all the media making equipment cam corders you name it that is all he does

My point is you are never to old to learn ,People in todays times just gotten used to the fact that Technology is ever evolving and they can't keep up

Layback Bear said:

That attitude must be a real business builder.

They come to me and want to be treated as little children leaving me all technical decisions about hardware and critical software, they pay me for this service.

I usually ask what they want to do with the hardware, and then pull out a fair price.

More often than not that's all they know and want to know. Most don't grasp what a computer is (go figure the components), cannot tell the difference between Windows and Office suite, think the IE icon is TEH INTERNET, not just a program, are oblivious to what an antivirus does and why they need one.

Now the damn android/apple tablets are cutting down that part of my businness, as they are specifically designed with this user base in mind. Simple stuff, walled-garden, intuitive interface, no settings, good looks. That's really all they need.

Thankfully I still sell tons of oldish stuff as home servers/media centers as that is another kind of userbase.

To me that is a insult to the consumers and as a whole the people of the EU. To presume they have the IQ concerning computers of a 3 legged pet rock and can't make their/there own choices is just plain wrong.

I deal with facts, I don't presume, I work for people like this every day, and i have lots of friends like this. So I think it's likely that other people are like this as well (otherwise I would be very very unlucky wouldn't it?). You have some evidence (even personal experience) that it is like you think, or is it just something you believe or hope in?

I don't think every customer is like this (i had a fair share of gamers and webmasters that were savy enough), but the percentage of less-computer-savy customers is very very significant here. Pulling numbers from thin air I'd say 60%.

Also, I cannot speak for the whole EU, as there are wild differences between each country.

why not sue apple that doesnt allow to install mac os on any other hardware just apple's?

Apple market share is insignificant. And we are talking of browsers, not OS.
Btw, try google "hackingtosh", that's the jargon for non-apple computers running their OS.
Apple says it's unsupported, not that it's illegal.