4 ms·

This is because US fines are laughable. Try Microsoft paying over Billion dollars for IE bundling in EU. The way things are going they are due for another round

by rasz_pl 11y ago

This is because US fines are laughable. Try Microsoft paying over Billion dollars for IE bundling in EU. The way things are going they are due for another round or billion dollar fines soon.

donatj 11y ago
I still content that the IE bundling case was a horrible miscarriage of justice. Does ANY for pay OS today not come with a Browser? How the hell else am I supposed to get a Browser without some form of browser? Go to the store and buy one? Yeah, boo IE, hiss Microsoft, but honestly including core functionality like HTML rendering in your operating system is not morally wrong.
- ambrice 11y ago
  The problem is not that IE was included, the problem was that the OEM was forbidden from also pre-installing firefox.
- revelation 11y ago
  You might try to learn the facts of the case first. The agreement was that Microsoft would simply offer users a choice of browsers on the first launch of IE. They then managed to not ship this selection screen for a year or so on Windows setup disks and ISOs. Hence they got the $1b fine.
- Qwertious 11y ago
  At the time, OSes were paid software. Microsoft deliberately gave away their (vendor-locked) web browser at a loss to drive the other web browsers out of business (i.e. dumping), in order to lock web development into Windows. Although to be fair, they cheated the original developers of IE out of their money, too, by promising them a cut of the sales on IE (which they had absolutely no intention of delivering, seeing as they planned to give it away for free), so it wasn't quite "at a loss".
  - thaumasiotes 11y ago
    > Microsoft deliberately gave away their (vendor-locked) web browser at a loss to drive the other web browsers out of business (i.e. dumping) This is kind of a weird claim. They gave Notepad and Solitaire away too. But they weren't giving any of that away at a loss; the "at a loss" concept doesn't even apply to software sales.
- lmm 11y ago
  > Does ANY for pay OS today not come with a Browser? How the hell else am I supposed to get a Browser without some form of browser? Go to the store and buy one? The wheels of justice turn slowly, but back in 1994 or so when this all happened, people did go to the store and buy netscape navigator on disk or CD-ROM.
- dingaling 11y ago
  > How the hell else am I supposed to get a Browser without some form of browser? For the historical record: ftp ftp.mozilla.org cd pub/firefox/releases/

by rasz_pl 11y ago

This is because US fines are laughable. Try Microsoft paying over Billion dollars for IE bundling in EU. The way things are going they are due for another round or billion dollar fines soon.

donatj 11y ago

I still content that the IE bundling case was a horrible miscarriage of justice. Does ANY for pay OS today not come with a Browser? How the hell else am I supposed to get a Browser without some form of browser? Go to the store and buy one? Yeah, boo IE, hiss Microsoft, but honestly including core functionality like HTML rendering in your operating system is not morally wrong.

ambrice 11y ago
The problem is not that IE was included, the problem was that the OEM was forbidden from also pre-installing firefox.
revelation 11y ago
You might try to learn the facts of the case first. The agreement was that Microsoft would simply offer users a choice of browsers on the first launch of IE. They then managed to not ship this selection screen for a year or so on Windows setup disks and ISOs. Hence they got the $1b fine.
Qwertious 11y ago
At the time, OSes were paid software. Microsoft deliberately gave away their (vendor-locked) web browser at a loss to drive the other web browsers out of business (i.e. dumping), in order to lock web development into Windows. Although to be fair, they cheated the original developers of IE out of their money, too, by promising them a cut of the sales on IE (which they had absolutely no intention of delivering, seeing as they planned to give it away for free), so it wasn't quite "at a loss".
- thaumasiotes 11y ago
  > Microsoft deliberately gave away their (vendor-locked) web browser at a loss to drive the other web browsers out of business (i.e. dumping) This is kind of a weird claim. They gave Notepad and Solitaire away too. But they weren't giving any of that away at a loss; the "at a loss" concept doesn't even apply to software sales.
lmm 11y ago
> Does ANY for pay OS today not come with a Browser? How the hell else am I supposed to get a Browser without some form of browser? Go to the store and buy one? The wheels of justice turn slowly, but back in 1994 or so when this all happened, people did go to the store and buy netscape navigator on disk or CD-ROM.
dingaling 11y ago
> How the hell else am I supposed to get a Browser without some form of browser? For the historical record: ftp ftp.mozilla.org cd pub/firefox/releases/