Microsoft Plugs IE Add-Ons With New Site

[4play]

I was harmed since microsoft effectively killed off the competition in the browser market stifling inovation. Do you think we would be stuck with the piece of shit that ie6 is if they still had some competition.

The reason i have to use office is that all my uni lecture notes are in doc format. How else do i access them? I have asked the lecturer about why he uses the doc and he says that all the students have office so he has to provide them in that format.

m$ did make this format standard and let no one else use it for a reason and that is to lock them in to using office. This is my document not microsofts why should i not have access to all of it at will.
Thank god people saw sense and ruled that goverment documents that where to be accessable to everyone had to be in an open format forcing microsoft to open their format up.

maybe the wmp ruling was a bit over the top but the networking and api documentation that they are demanding will be a massive help to anyone wanting to communicate with windows boxes.

[Busyman™]

I was harmed since microsoft effectively killed off the competition in the browser market stifling inovation. Do you think we would be stuck with the piece of shit that ie6 is if they still had some competition.

Don't quote what the government says. How were YOU harmed? There have been tons of browsers since IE. You haven't been "stuck" with IE let alone IE6. I heard shit all about consumers being hurt by M$ until the DOJ said so.

The reason i have to use office is that all my uni lecture notes are in doc format. How else do i access them? I have asked the lecturer about why he uses the doc and he says that all the students have office so he has to provide them in that format.

Ok. So far that seems to be the standard.

m$ did make this format standard and let no one else use it for a reason and that is to lock them in to using office. This is my document not microsofts why should i not have access to all of it at will.

Dude you've just made a complaint as to why M$ documents are not open. Most programs didn't use have open formats. Are you now blaming M$ for not making Office documents open when other companies didn't do the same 'cause it's M$? I sure didn't hear this complaint when WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 were out. Also, last I heard, M$ Office wasn't free. It seems a lot of people actually decided to use it by paying for it. I remember when WordPerfect was the standard word processor about 13 years ago.

Thank god people saw sense and ruled that goverment documents that where to be accessable to everyone had to be in an open format forcing microsoft to open their format up.

I can't disagree with that. M$ would have to change to fit the marketplace. However, the government shouldn't force M$ to open up. Just threaten them with switching to another Office suite which would hit M$ in the pocket.

maybe the wmp ruling was a bit over the top but the networking and api documentation that they are demanding will be a massive help to anyone wanting to communicate with windows boxes.

I agree with your last as long as M$ doesn't have give up their core code. There is nothing wrong with a company making a format proprietary. Some proponents of open formats are that way 'cause it's either free (consumer)and/or they are not the market leader (business).

[peat moss]

Well we could argue all nite , the EU situation is a joke tho give us your source code and delete winplayer . No its not selling well at all is it ? Terrible waste of money eh .

Fucking lawyers are dancing in the streets !

[Busyman™]

Well we could argue all nite , the EU situation is a joke tho give us your source code and delete winplayer . No its not selling well at all is it ? Terrible waste of money eh .

Fucking lawyers are dancing in the streets !

There was a huge fine, petey. I think 600 million. Not a joke at all.

The only joke was the WMP. Giving up the source code was a horrible ruling.

[4play]

The only joke was the WMP. Giving up the source code was a horrible ruling.

The source code and decent api documentation for the networking side of things is all thats been asked for and is good news for everyone.

The wmp ruling on the other hand is to benefit real but everyone hates their products now since it comes preloaded with spyware.

[fkdup74]

Enough with the damned squabbling already. Proprietary formats are gay, period.
Forcing a business to buy a specific application,
as opposed to an open source or alternative program for free or a fraction of the cost is just hurtful to the business.
How can anyone deny that?

"Hey, Smith...check out that offer we got from that prospect over in Boston."
"Can't boss."
"Why not?"
"They're in .pdf format. We don't have Adobe Acrobat. It's $449 for a single license. We can't squeeze that into the budget at the moment."
"Why not?"
"Well, sir....for our marketing department to collaborate on this, we'll need at least 5 licenses. That's $2250, roughly."
"....Shit....."

we have the Adobe Reader, which helps, but doesn't quite solve the dilemna


"Hey, Smith...check out that offer we got from that prospect over in Boston."
"Can't boss."
"Why not?"
"They're in .xls format. We don't have Microsoft Office. It's $499 for a single license. We can't squeeze that into the budget at the moment."
"Why not?"
"Well, sir....for our marketing department to collaborate on this, we'll need at least 5 licenses. That's $2500, roughly."
"....Shit....."

I do believe there's a free Excel viewer now, but again, it doesn't quite fix the situation


It's even worse on the home user, as they don't have the resources of even a small business, generally.


Busyman Disclaimer:

The businesses used in these examples are fictitious.
Any similarities to actual or real life persons or foundations is purely unintentional.
The examples used here are in no way reflective of actual pricing/availability of said applications/productivity suites.

No animals were harmed during the writing of this post.

[Busyman™]

The only joke was the WMP. Giving up the source code was a horrible ruling.

The source code and decent api documentation for the networking side of things is all thats been asked for and is good news for everyone.

The wmp ruling on the other hand is to benefit real but everyone hates their products now since it comes preloaded with spyware.

But of course, whether Real's products were good wasn't the point.

Apparently the consumer was harmed.

[Busyman™]

Enough with the damned squabbling already. Proprietary formats are gay, period.
Forcing a business to buy a specific application,
as opposed to an open source or alternative program for free or a fraction of the cost is just hurtful to the business.
How can anyone deny that?

Forcing a business to open their format 'cause it costs money to use it is hurtful to business.

What you propose is a software business model that's not a business at all. Free shit is great. I wish my home was open source. However, I had to pay for it.

The solution to proprietary formats is to simply move to an open source one, not complain about the proprietary one being....well....proprietary.

I can't blame business for moving to Linux, for instance. It's a solution to their problem and that business didn't just fuck about complaining about paying for M$ products.

[fkdup74]

Enough with the damned squabbling already. Proprietary formats are gay, period.
Forcing a business to buy a specific application,
as opposed to an open source or alternative program for free or a fraction of the cost is just hurtful to the business.
How can anyone deny that?

Forcing a business to open their format 'cause it costs money to use it is hurtful to business.

What you propose is a software business model that's not a business at all. Free shit is great. I wish my home was open source. However, I had to pay for it.

The solution to proprietary formats is to simply move to an open source one, not complain about the proprietary one being....well....proprietary.

I can't blame business for moving to Linux, for instance. It's a solution to their problem and that business didn't just fuck about complaining about paying for M$ products.

I never mentioned free "shit".
I said propietary formats were stupid and hurtful to business.
Actually I called them gay, but oh well.

Funny thing about your house, glad you mentioned it, good analogy.
No, it isn't free, nor should it be, but....
If you need to improve your home, you can go to Home Depot, Lowe's, just about any local harware store to get parts, advice, etc.
Why? Because of standards.

[Busyman™]

Forcing a business to open their format 'cause it costs money to use it is hurtful to business.

What you propose is a software business model that's not a business at all. Free shit is great. I wish my home was open source. However, I had to pay for it.

The solution to proprietary formats is to simply move to an open source one, not complain about the proprietary one being....well....proprietary.

I can't blame business for moving to Linux, for instance. It's a solution to their problem and that business didn't just fuck about complaining about paying for M$ products.

I never mentioned free "shit".
I said propietary formats were stupid and hurtful to business.
Actually I called them gay, but oh well.

Funny thing about your house, glad you mentioned it, good analogy.
No, it isn't free, nor should it be, but....
If you need to improve your home, you can go to Home Depot, Lowe's, just about any local harware store to get parts, advice, etc.
Why? Because of standards.

As I said and as many have done, businesses can move to a non-proprietary format and STFU then.

I don't know what standard you elude to, however. Although they are open-source, Linux is not a standard, nor is Firefox. What's considered standard changes with the market.