4 ms·
> where does the slippery slope end Should have to convince a judge that bundling the particular application is causing a distorting effect on the market. The
by owisd 5y ago
> where does the slippery slope end
Should have to convince a judge that bundling the particular application is causing a distorting effect on the market. The complainants might have a case for OneDrive, but seems much more unlikely the video game industry would have a case for solitaire.
- nodamage 5y ago> but seems much more unlikely the video game industry would have a case for solitaire. Based on what? It seems entirely plausible that the developer of a solitaire game could make the exact same argument that Microsoft shipping a free version of solitaire with Windows makes it impossible to complete against them, and therefore (under the same logic applied to OneDrive) solitaire should be banned from Windows in order to ensure a "level playing field".
- paulryanrogers 5y agoPerhaps OS vendors should ship platform tooling, such as to make games easier to make. Not shipping games and apps themselves. Like stable APIs for file sync, calendars, contacts, gaming, common hardware, etc.
- owisd 5y agoGood point although it’s more convincing me that maybe more of the seemingly trivial applications should be unbundled. I was imagining since consumers buy multiple games and games developers typically produce multiple games the overall effect on the games market would be more limited so at some point it’s not worth taking it to court.
- piaste 5y agoI think that the network effect / ecosystem considerations are the meaningful discriminator here. MS didn't create and ship IE as a freebie gift to its customers; it did it in order to gain a foothold into the burgeoning Internet service market. Likewise with office products and cloud storage, having all Windows users automatically use .doc files and OneDrive accounts puts them in a dominant position to sell other connected products. A Windows user who plays solitaire is just playing solitaire. If he would like to play a better third party solitaire instead, the fact that 99.99% of Windows users are playing the default version doesn't affect him in the slightest. But a Netscape-browsing, StarOffice-typing, Nextcloud-uploading Windows user will find himself constantly annoyed in a world where every website is Best Viewed in IE, ships heavily customized Word documents, and shares OneDrive links with each other. If Solitaire were a MMO, I think Windows giving every user a free basic Solitaire account would not be OK.
- s17n 5y agoWhy not? Bundled solitaire surely has a significant impact on third party solitaire games.