Comment Re: Expected (Score 1) 270
(This probably won't be heard because no-one will be wasting mod points on this story any more, but here goes...)
Why did Europe bother suing MS? It's easy money. Microsoft can't put up as much of a case, and put as much pressure on the EU council members, there as it can in the US (for political reasons). And while $800 million may be a drop in MS's bucket, it's good money for the EU to use on its own projects. The EU is strapped for cash with all the new eastern european states coming in - any money it can get out of a big monopoly is a good thing.
Not that I see that as the main reason the case went ahead in Europe, BTW, but it's something to keep in mind.
The other problem is that 'taking [their] business elsewhere' has historically led to MS offering their products at a fraction of the cost to win back the business. As far as MS and its reserves of money are concerned, creating new products costs nothing; the far greater cost is in perceived marketshare. This is why Thailand gets a 99% off deal for Windows when it wants to move to Linux.
(That was a deal which would probably put a big spike in the illegal software market, since the bulk of products being distributed only run on MS products. So MS has done no-one any favours but itself by trying to keep that market alive.)
The real problem with MS is that it keeps 'leveraging' its products into new markets in underhanded ways, and at the same time ships under-developed products with major business problems (remember the MS Mail SMTP gateway?). They just aren't behaving like the fine, upstanding corporate citizen they could be.
JM$0.45W.
Paul
Why did Europe bother suing MS? It's easy money. Microsoft can't put up as much of a case, and put as much pressure on the EU council members, there as it can in the US (for political reasons). And while $800 million may be a drop in MS's bucket, it's good money for the EU to use on its own projects. The EU is strapped for cash with all the new eastern european states coming in - any money it can get out of a big monopoly is a good thing.
Not that I see that as the main reason the case went ahead in Europe, BTW, but it's something to keep in mind.
The other problem is that 'taking [their] business elsewhere' has historically led to MS offering their products at a fraction of the cost to win back the business. As far as MS and its reserves of money are concerned, creating new products costs nothing; the far greater cost is in perceived marketshare. This is why Thailand gets a 99% off deal for Windows when it wants to move to Linux.
(That was a deal which would probably put a big spike in the illegal software market, since the bulk of products being distributed only run on MS products. So MS has done no-one any favours but itself by trying to keep that market alive.)
The real problem with MS is that it keeps 'leveraging' its products into new markets in underhanded ways, and at the same time ships under-developed products with major business problems (remember the MS Mail SMTP gateway?). They just aren't behaving like the fine, upstanding corporate citizen they could be.
JM$0.45W.
Paul
