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Where were they when AT&T joined all of the Baby Bells back together? It was ok because the competitive landscape changed during the decades in which AT&T was b
by Mountain_Skies 5y ago
Where were they when AT&T joined all of the Baby Bells back together? It was ok because the competitive landscape changed during the decades in which AT&T was broken up. Same here. Microsoft has nowhere near the power over general computing that it once had. What they did with IE back in the day was only a problem because of their dominant market position. Others doing the same from a minority market position would have been fine. Now that the majority of devices are running something other than Windows, it's more difficult to claim Microsoft dominates the market unless you define the market very narrowly, in which case, lots of other companies would also be in trouble.
- garaetjjte 5y agoIn what world Windows is in minority market position? It is de facto desktop OS.
- bogwog 5y agoThe only thing that changed was that other companies started doing the same evil stuff Microsoft was doing when they got in trouble, except instead of regulators going after those other companies too, they've... idk, disappeared? So in a weird way, I agree that it's unfair that Microsoft can't do unfair things while all the other companies are doing unfair things. That puts them at a competitive disadvantage! They've been shy about it because of their history, but I predict Microsoft will eventually lock Windows down in the same way Apple and Google lock down their operating systems. Or, knowing Microsoft, they'll probably take it as far as they possibly can.
- sealeck 5y agoThe "majority of devices" if you count IoT, etc. However, Windows has market dominance in desktop computing.
- CivBase 5y ago> Others doing the same from a minority market position would have been fine. So where's the interest in slapping billion dollar fines on Google for bundling Chrome and Google Search with Android? They own the majority market share for both mobile operating systems, web browsers, and search engines. I guess they probably get away with it because they bundle it with Google Play Services instead of Android, but you could make an argument that GPS is fundamentally a part of Android given it is necessary to provide the features generally associated with the OS. It's not rock-solid, but it's at least a better argument than any of the other big-tech monopoly cases the US has been pursuing.
- causi 5y agoAndroid doesn't throw a tantrum when you change your default browser from Chrome to something else.
- account42 5y agoLots of companies should be in trouble.