The Zig Zag

Hey Zig Zag,
I'd be curious to read your opinion/analysis of social security privatization.
Not that I suspect you lack your own ideas, of course.

err since it doesnt affect me I'm afraid I do lack "ideas" on that one.

If the system is under funded as it is, then for anyone whose going to be retiring at a time when the government cant afford to pay, it already is private. Privatization is just an acknowledgement of this.

"what would be the consequences if Microsoft just stopped selling to Europe. Who’s loose more?"

Microsoft would. And they know it. As of right now there are products that in their features and function match all Microsoft products and are cheaper and more secure. What they lack is a certain fluency of integration and the arguable security of being backed by the largest software corporation.
Microsoft themselves know that they've passed the peak level of penetration in the off-the-peg software market. They're betting the company on a new market model of consultancy that *doesn't depend on maximising headcount on a project*. The first big project is Britain's National Health Service. It's the only chance both organisations have IMO.

As for the fine, I've noticed that companies when fined complain if the amount is a large percentage of their net profit figure. When individuals are fined, the amount is often a significant proportion of their income, i.e. their turnover. It's a shame a lot ofjudges are innumerate.

But there’s another issue. If Windows is sold with say media player in the US, but not in Europe due to the judgment - who looses?

It seems to me that European consumers get a worse product (probably at the same price as before), but European businesses don’t get any increased opportunities - since the alternative software can just as easily come from Tokyo or San Jose. So overall Europe looses I think.

Hence why it’s probably better to enforce these types of sanctions in the companies home market – i.e. the US.

"If Windows is sold with say media player in the US, but not in Europe due to the judgment - who looses?"

Individuals who don't have the suss to obtain WinAmp, RealPlayer or any of a dozen other free media players. Big corporations will probably be grateful that their employees aren't using the Media Player.

"Hence why it’s probably better to enforce these types of sanctions in the companies home market – i.e. the US."

But in the US Microsoft has bought off both the judiciary and the corporate competition.

Sure microsoft may have bought off the competition but there's still nothing the EU can do about that.

The problem with Microsoft is a failure, over many years, of prosecutors to fine and eventually jail Microsoft executives for illegal actions. It is these illegal actions, mostly fraud, that have played a significant role in Microsoft's dominant position today and leaves Microsoft with a lot fewer defenders among believers in the free market than it normally would have.

The huge network effects that Microsoft gained advantage from fraudulently selling it's multi-thousand dollar programmer subscription kits (MSDN universal subscriptions for example, though there are other variants) led to a lot of big businesses switching to MS because that's where the programmers were. Those programmers went there because MS was unique in offering full access to the Win32 API. That full access was a lie and MS has never been punished for it. MS engaged in a lot of Orwellian newspeak denying that they ever promised what they actually promised for years. Nobody ever filed suit, the independent programmers just started looking for the exits (which is why MS is losing its dominance).

MS has been guilty of theft of code and has sometimes not been prosecuted for it because the relevant engineers simply didn't want to waste a decade of their productive lives just for the chance of a fat check at the end. The force feedback code in Microsoft's joysticks is one example of this kind of blatant infringement that went unpunished.

Microsoft has been guilty of fraudulently reporting errors based on specific checks that competitors' code was on the machine. These errors were designed to mislead end users that the other company's code was at fault. DR-DOS was a rare case where they ended up being caught at it and had to pay up.

All of this sort of thing, taken individually, can be viewed as isolated white collar crime. Taken as a pattern and you end up with criminal conspiracy as an essential part of MS' business plan.

Microsoft should get no sympathy, the EU bureaucrats should merely get points reduced for bad style in how they punished this corporate bad actor.

But dont you think that Microsoft products are at least partly responsible for increased productivty in the states?

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