Posted at 13:07 on November 2nd, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Master Gumby Posts: 103 | http://www.msnbc.com/news/829277.asp It seems Microsoft's five-year court battle over its alleged violation of US anti-trust laws has finally come to an end. Can you guess who won? Yep, after all that talk of splitting Microsoft in two, stopping its dangerous monopoly on operating systems and other crucial software, and allowing everybody a fair chance of distributing their products on equal terms with uncle Bill's, a settlement has at last been reached. In what Gates considers to be a "tough but fair compromise", Microsoft agreed to... patch Windows XP so that users can remove Microsoft icons from the desktop. Talk about dura lex... There's also some provisions about Microsoft having to deal with all hardware manufacturers on the same terms when negotiating licensing agreements, but that's so vague it'll probably be impossible to enforce. Oh, and these provisions only last for five years, so if you're itching to remove that Internet Explorer icon from your desktop (just the icon, of course, no one is talking about -- god forbid! -- removing the software) you'd better do it before 2007. ----- C'est pas la chute qu'importe -- c'est l'atterrissage |
Posted at 13:31 on November 2nd, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Admin Reborn Gumby Posts: 11097 | Erm.... users were not allowed to remove desktop icons before? ----- Now you see the violence inherent in the system! |
Posted at 15:23 on November 2nd, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Retired Gumby Posts: 936 | If you did, bill would ride his 30 billion dollar spaceship to your house and stab you in the eye with a paintbrush. Tuss ----- Keep your stick on the ice |
Posted at 15:35 on November 2nd, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Admin Reborn Gumby Posts: 11097 | Good thing I never deleted IE's icon from the Windows desktop - because I never put it there in the first place ----- Now you see the violence inherent in the system! |
Posted at 09:41 on November 3rd, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Prof Gumby Posts: 607 | I removed IE's icon right after installing Windows XP; without a patch... Am I a criminal now? Seriously, I don't get what's meant by "an update that allows you to remove Microsoft icons from your desktop", but then again this whole trial seems pretty ridiculous... Hooray for Bill, "barely able to contain a huge grin." ----- "One Very Important Thought" |
Posted at 07:21 on November 4th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Retired Gumby Posts: 1007 | The user was always allowed to modify the desktop. It was the computer manufacturer who was not allowed to remove icons from the desktop or add icons of software that Microsoft didn't aprove of. ----- NetDanzr<br /> -The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog- |
Posted at 07:50 on November 4th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Retired Gumby Posts: 936 | If that's true, then this decision is even worse!! That means there will be unregulated icon generation of those factory installed programs that are a bitch to get off! Tuss ----- Keep your stick on the ice |
Posted at 10:40 on November 4th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Prof Gumby Posts: 488 | I completely agree with Tuss. It's one of the decisions which should have been completely won by Microsoft without a question, rather than one of those he should have lost without a question... ----- I am on a hot streak... Litterally. |
Posted at 12:35 on November 4th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Retired Gumby Posts: 1007 | If I remember right, this was the reason why Netscape disappeared, even though arguably it was superior to MSIE at that time... ----- NetDanzr<br /> -The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog- |
Posted at 12:50 on November 4th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Retired Gumby Posts: 936 | Netscape is hideous now. It is far worse than MSIE. Tuss ----- Keep your stick on the ice |
Posted at 12:53 on November 4th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Retired Gumby Posts: 1007 | I can never tell the difference . I stick with Opera . ----- NetDanzr<br /> -The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog- |
Posted at 00:52 on November 5th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Dr Gumby Posts: 267 | NetDanzr: Just look for the word Microsoft in the title ----- Lets make this a beefy place |
Posted at 19:57 on November 5th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Dr Gumby Posts: 202 | After Netscape went and put in skins all hell broke loose for me, the skins (even the default) slowed my P2-400 to a crawl with only one browser open. As for the other problems, lets just not go there, it was so unstable I begged Microsoft IE to come back onto my system! ----- Atheism is a Non-Prophet Organisation |
Posted at 04:44 on November 6th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Prof Gumby Posts: 560 | That's why I use multizilla, stable enough and still rather fast ----- "In theory, if people bred as fast as ants, and with an equal indifference for it's surrounding species, earth would have 5 million human inhabitants at the turn of the century. But this, of course, is highly unthinkable" |
Posted at 10:52 on November 6th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Admin Reborn Gumby Posts: 11097 | Instead of opening yet another Microsoft-bashing topic, I'll just post it here: this will be the next market MS is taking over ----- Now you see the violence inherent in the system! |
Posted at 14:31 on November 6th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Master Gumby Posts: 103 | Oh, dear. Microsoft happens to mention plans for a possible future alternative to PDF and Adobe's stock starts plummeting. If that isn't using a dominant position in the marketplace to gain unfair advantages, I don't know what it is. Seems like the only company that can give MS some serious competition these days is Sony. But I guess Gates isn't that worried about losing the console war as long as keeps his hold on the PC market. ----- C'est pas la chute qu'importe -- c'est l'atterrissage |
Posted at 20:04 on November 6th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Dr Gumby Posts: 202 | Yes, but stocks go up and down ever day, just stating "they took a hit" means nothing special, it's just media hype. "Plummet" and "Taking a hit" are really quite different in this case Dizzy, for a stock to plummet it needs to lose more the 5% of their worth, which they didn't. ----- Atheism is a Non-Prophet Organisation |
Posted at 01:03 on November 7th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Dr Gumby Posts: 267 | So why didn't you buy some of the cheap stock while you had a chance, you could have become rich and started a software company that could take on Microsoft . ----- Lets make this a beefy place |
Posted at 22:43 on November 11th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Dr Gumby Posts: 202 | We could alway talk about the ones we regret, like how Coca-Cola shares were only 5c once, perfer to think about the ones I bought and paid off ----- Atheism is a Non-Prophet Organisation |
Posted at 12:58 on November 12th, 2002 | Quote | Edit | Delete | |
Member Retired Gumby Posts: 936 | Or how our broker told us to buy AOL in '93, when it was $10 Tuss ----- Keep your stick on the ice |