EU Penalties Against Microsoft Upheld
So long Windows Media Player
Wednesday, December 22, 2004 by Frogboy | Discussion: Windows XP
In the not-so-good news for Microsoft category, the EU has upheld the ruling that Windows XP in Europe will not have Windows Media Player.
"The evidence adduced by Microsoft is not sufficient to show that implementation of the remedies imposed by the Commission might cause serious and irreparable damage," the draft Court statement obtained by Reuters said.
Personally, I find this to be a bad move for European consumers. While it's always tempting to stick the giant in the eye, it's not the giant who will suffer in this case. At this stage in OS development it is very handy for both businesses and consumers to assume that the base OS includes video playing and music playing as part of the OS that supports a specific format (WMV in this case on video).
Read the whole article.
Reply #2 Wednesday, December 22, 2004 6:21 PM
I hope you guys remember, all of these (Pro) views, when you have Windows, lock-Crash and Burn, and you lose the licenses to your Digital Media. It was bandied around MS, that there was only going to be a 3 times support, for lost licenses. Answer me this, why should there be any limit to the duration of a media file, you have rights to? Also wonder on this, Digital Rights and licensing are enabled by default, and buried in the Mediaplayers options, and even though unchecked on update or install (for unimplementation) they remain checked. You have to go into the options and uncheck them again.
Now with WinAmp, biting the bullet, we as consumers are going to be in a sad, state of affairs.
Thank God, for DbPowerAmp, Media Player Classic, and a few other small alternatives.
Reply #3 Wednesday, December 22, 2004 6:40 PM
Reply #6 Thursday, December 23, 2004 9:03 AM
~ I think the user should have the choice of which player to use. Wouldn't it be nice if Windows came with several different players ready to install and gave us the choice on which one we'd like to use/make the default player? I know it's not possible and will never happen but imagine being given the choice of using WMP, WinAmp, JetAudio or several other players.
~ Something like that reminds me of Litestep where the user defines which programs are the defaults such as text editor, media player, chat app.
~ If only Microsoft had the users best interests at heart instead of cornering the market or keeping everything proprietary...
Reply #7 Thursday, December 23, 2004 9:57 AM
Reply #8 Thursday, December 23, 2004 10:32 PM
Reply #9 Thursday, December 23, 2004 10:49 PM
That is a rather telling indictment of their own citizens by a supra-national (the EU is a collection of nations; it is not a nation unto itself) judicial body.
In terms of why I have Media Player 10 around (and no, it is NOT my default player for audio), MP10 *is* the best multi-format VIDEO player that I have found so far (and that's simply covering the non-MS video codecs and formats). MP10 is NOT my default player for audio (Winamp is) and that is my own *personal* choice. But I have to seriously wonder what the real gist is behind the EU decsion on forcing Microsoft to *unbundle* MP from Windows XP.
Reply #10 Friday, December 24, 2004 1:20 AM
Personally, I don't like any player to take control of all my media files. I use WMP for it proprietary files, I use Real Audio for Real Audio files, I use Quicktime for MOVs, etc. For MP3's it depends. Sometimes WMP, sometimes Winamp.
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Reply #1 Wednesday, December 22, 2004 4:23 PM
(mind you, I'm biased...I skin WMP...)