This law suit is total BS, cause europe always had more people using firefox or opera then the US for example. Some countries (Germany I think) Had something like 50% Firefox users, so this law suit against MS is BS. At any rate at this point microsoft is becoming an underdog in just about everything except their OS and MS Office. I would say google should be the target of the next antitrust hearings, especially since they are buying up more and more ad services and dominating the market.

It isn't BS. Unlike in the US, in Europe the governments actually tend to be less influenced by lobbyists.

Further, Microsoft undoubtedly was found guilty of abusing it Windows' operating system Monopoly to gain an advantage with it's web browser. It never would have the lead with web browsers if it didn't twist hardware manufacturers arms to install Explorer at the expense of Netscape. THe EU now wants Microsoft to level the field based on it's abusive history and let users choose what browser to have installed by default.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sheff

This law suit is total BS, cause europe always had more people using firefox or opera then the US for example. Some countries (Germany I think) Had something like 50% Firefox users, so this law suit against MS is BS. At any rate at this point microsoft is becoming an underdog in just about everything except their OS and MS Office. I would say google should be the target of the next antitrust hearings, especially since they are buying up more and more ad services and dominating the market.

This is a good thing.

Instead of people being like trained monkeys and clicking the blue "E" for internet. They get to use different browsers and learn different ways of achieving the same result.

Instead of web operators making their sites Windows IE only, like a lot of real estate software is set up, they will be forced to adhere to WWW3 standards.

Same should go for Office type software, instead of Microsoft Office all the time, perhaps they will now learn how to use OpenOffice or other brands to achieve the same results.

Files will become more inter-compatible with other softwares, a OpenOffice user can open a Office file and vice versa.


This diversification will also reduce malware, people learn that if one browser doesn't work well they can use another quite easily. Right now the way it is people are scared not to use Internet Explorer or their computer won't work. It stems from the fact that IE was used in XP to upgrade the OS.

This is good for Mac's because people learn and say "hey!, if I can use another browser, I can use another operating system!" and the ball just keeps on rolling.


Now what Apple needs is a demo version of OS X that will run in a custom virtual machine for Windows. A Windows user can boot the OS X demo app and it will run OS X in a window and they can get used to that, even run a few programs to get used to the Mac operating system. Make it easy to switch.

yes hopefully the next step will be to force pc manufacturers to install open office

Good.

Anything to throw a wrench into the MS ignorance machine, as long as it's lawful.