So please stop with this shit EU vs USA.”

Sorry, but the EU is not a country. It’s a third rate U.S. wannabe. That’s all it will ever be, America’s bitch.

The only thing I’ve learned about Europeans in my many trips to Europe, is that they are the whiniest, sorriest, most useless people on the planet. I don’t include Great Britian with Europeans.

So to hell with the EU! It’s a half step away from another Soveit Union. Run by self-appointed, self-elected socialists who answer to nobody. This whole deal with Microsoft and other American companies is nothing more than a money grabbing scheme devised by these assw*pes. American should drop the hammer on European companies in reaturn. You can be damn sure if Microsoft was an EU company, none of these lawsuits would have ever happened.

As for Chris, he’s not a moron. He’s a douche bag.

“Europe is therefore a MUCH bigger market than the USA, with much higher purchasing power. Microsoft would much sooner pull out of the USA than the EU or Asia.”

LOL! Don’t make me laugh. Again, the EU is not a single country. It’s a joke. Even as such, it is nowhere close to being Microsoft’s biggest market dumbass. Do a little research. Second, Microsoft does have a choice. They can dump the EU like yesterday’s garbage. What the should do however, is create a bare-bones version of Windows without Media Player, without IE, and without the basic drivers. Put it on the EU market and tell them to “sue that” and never look back. Sell the regular version of Windows elsewhere in the world.

Well theres 2 issues here, this fine is only roughly double that of the last fine, where Microsoft just dismissed. So this fine is so big because Microsoft didt comply even tough they paid the last fine. And its only roughly 2 times as expensive. However the value of the $ is record low, now multiplying anything big by 1.5 is going to be even bigger. Its not entirely europes flaw that the dollar is doing so bad here. In fact this gives a lot of american companies a benefit.

Yes the fine is big but microsoft is big too so giving microsoft a fine that would be noticeable for microsoft. Anyway Microsoft makes more money in Europe than 1.3 billion yearly. (europe is aout 600 million people so the fine is roughly one euro per person microsoft gains about 200 euro per
1/2 person, calculate that).

Now in thinking this is a bit akin to the nordic way of fining for speed limit breaking. Where your fine is based on your last years daily salary. So you pay 12-30 *0.5-0.6 days worth of income. So be how rich as you might you loose as big a share of maney as a poorer person. So the deterrent is as big for both.

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@60: So, are they using it for those purposes? Is Europe propping Linux up with financial or development investments? Are they using it to help stimulate the economy? Before you go flaming people, maybe try to get at what I’m saying about the concept before going in for the details.

They have already. It’s called Linux. Ever heard of it? You should’nt try it. It’s probably way over your head.

You know nothing about the EU as it seems. The way the EU works has little to do with the way the UN works.

In regards to anti trust cases, the EU commission does not need the member states, it acts on its own behalf and also has the power to do so. It is responsible to the European Parliament which can impeach the Commission if it really fucks up and their decissions can be questioned in front of the European Court of Justice which decides than based on European law if the Commissions actions are lawful.

The member states have their own anti trust agencies, but they are not replacing the European anti trust actions but adding up to them, mostly for the smaller cases.

So better dont count on an immobile EU, as on the erea of anti trust it is not about talk but about real action. The EU commission has this proved over the years over and over again and before you dramatize this to an EU vs US case, you should know that the most common target logically have been big European companies. The point is, when big European companies have to abide the law, Americans doing business in Europe have to abide as well.

They are not being fined for not being open source. They basically want them to open up their apis to make it easier for other software developers to build software that can interact with windows on the same level that ms products do.

The EC are not telling them to open up the kernel.

The money will probably go to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Regional_Development_Fund

This brings me to fines in general. Humans telling other humans they are wrong, and they owe the person who is right money? Lawyers and bureaucrats, please do us a favor and die in a fire.

Does it matter win or lose? Probably not in the long run.

Does it matter who’s right or wrong? Not really, it’s too subjective.

I’ll tell you what can matter. If the EU takes the money and does some good with it.

For 1.3 Billion Dollars, they should be able to make their own open source OS for the various European governments, health care facilities, schools, and non-profits. Hell, make it available for everyone to enjoy, but be careful to put in good security measures. Include all the basics for people to use and let the standard out so that other companies can join in (even Microsoft).

For 1.3 Billion Dollars, they should be able to help the competition out, but form competition so as to not be using the letter of the law to defeat the spirit of the law.

Will that happen? I’ll give it a 50/50 shot since I’m an outside observer. You’re call Europe.

Essentially, they’re suing Microsoft because Windows isn’t open source. Or at least that’s the gist of the start of that behemoth PDF.

To some extent, there is less room for multinationals like MS to move around in their market, in Europe. And that is a good thing. without some kind of regulation, capitalism will encourage companies to exploit whatever and whoever they can, kill competition and become a monopoly. That’s just the nature of the sytem.

If you really believe that giant companies like Microsoft should have free reign in their market, we will have monopolies and corporate fascism in 10 years. Enjoy.

Judging by this fine, Europe is now located right between DPRK and Vietnam.

People these days are just pathetic. It’s not like Microsoft was just started yesterday, they WORKED just as hard as anybody else to make it to the top. Now that they are at the top they can do whatever the hell they want in my opinion. Go use Linux or Mac if you don’t like what Microsoft offers you. Sheesh.

@47 Do you seriously think that would work?

One final question: Can you even point out Europe on a map?

I wonder how quickly that fine would be reversed.

Microsoft, should stop selling their product inside the EU district and see how quickly the EU changes their mind about imposing the fines.

@Pandrogas: It’s not whether MS is successful or not at stifling the competition. It’s the fact that they are using their might to attempt to unfairly stifle competition.

I applaud the EU for standing firm where the US government “sold out”. We had a chance to do something about MS and failed.

If MS pulled out of Europe, it would be the death knell for MS. Linux (and Apple) would flood in .. and that would be the day that history would record as the day the computer revolution really began.

The competition isn’t dead, they just aren’t as big. If Europe doesn’t like Microsoft, there are tons of alternatives. They could even be like China and write their own freaking OS for the government and schools if they have to.

If Microsoft was honestly killing all competition like an old-school monopoly, the US would probably dismantle the company. They almost did that a few years back, but it does seem like Microsoft has made pretty good strides since then. I guess it’s mostly perspective, but I can still startup a company without fear of the big blue giant stomping me.

The event is a political grandstand for the most part. The EU, like the UN, requires that it’s member all cooperate for this to ultimately work. So what are the odds of that?

The US accounts for just about 200 million Internet connections.

Europe is therefore a MUCH bigger market than the USA, with much higher purchasing power. Microsoft would much sooner pull out of the USA than the EU or Asia.

So stop making daft comments about whether or not it is worth selling software to the EU. They don’t have a choice, unless they wish to lose their largest market.