Why Microsoft is winning
The ongoing legal debacle between Microsoft and the EU simply proves that the EU and certain Microsoft competitors still don’t get it. If they think they are going to stop or seriously hurt Microsoft they are going to wake up from a bad dream in the future. But you can’t blame them for trying. All of them are seriously beginning to feel the heat and I see this as an act of desperation to try and stop Microsoft.
Kind of like how Microsoft was after Linspire months ago because the name “Lindows” sounded a lot like “Windows”. We all know that was bullshit, Microsoft simply needed a reason to try and hurt Linspire, they thought they found it, and they went to war. They lost though, because not only did they give Linspire a lot of good publicity, they also helped to give their competitor’s product an even better name: “Linspire”. I’m sure in hindsight Microsoft can today admit going after Linspire was a stupid thing to do. I’m still a little disappointed in them because of this.
But the problems Microsoft is facing today for example with the EU are nothing but the wake left behind by their way of doing business years ago. Today they are simply facing the consequences of their actions back then. Because today Microsoft is a different company. A better company, and a lot less evil. More and more they are trying to compete with their products instead of using evil business practices. And why shouldn’t they? They have excellent products, and there are few competitors who can compete with Microsoft’s products today. Microsoft’s monopoly today isn’t being maintained by evil business practices anymore, but rather today it is being maintained by an arsenal of great products comprised of great technology.
And this is why what the EU and certain Microsoft competitors are trying to establish today makes little sense and is filled with hypocrisy. While Microsoft is being sued because they are including a media player with Windows, Linux distributors are including possibly every open source application in existence, including an entire office suite and often more than one media player application, with their Linux distribution and nobody is suing them. This is just an example of the many things that are just wrong in this world. And nobody even mentions this.
It’s sad for the EU and those Microsoft competitors because they don’t realize all of this will not bring them anywhere and only serves to make Microsoft stronger.
Today people actually prefer Microsoft’s software, and having Microsoft remove software from their OS is not going to help anyone, certainly not the EU. In addition, the measures they take against Microsoft are an insult to their intelligence, which I by the way seriously doubt they have. That, or, people at Microsoft are smarter. I think it’s the latter. Require Microsoft to release a new Windows version without media player? Great. But it costs the same as the normal Windows version? So why on earth would someone buy a crippled down version of Windows when it costs the same as the full version? Sad. Very sad. The score so far: Microsoft 10, EU -2.