EU to Require Microsoft to Remove WMP from Windows XP.

[James Fee]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.betanews.com/article/EU_Remove_Media_Player_from_Windows/1103733989' target='_blank'>http://www.betanews.com/article/EU_Remove_Media_Player_from_Windows/1103733989</a><br /><br /></div><i>"A European court has denied Microsoft's request to suspend antitrust remedies levied by the EU last March, ordering the company to immediately ship a version of Windows without its bundled media player. The WMP-free versions of Windows XP Home and Professional will tentatively go by the moniker "Reduced Media Edition," BetaNews has learned. The new Windows XP RME will ship to European OEMs in January and make its way to retail outlets by February. Pricing will remain the same as current Windows XP editions, Microsoft says."</i><br /><br />What this will mean for everyone, probably not much. Sure OEMs can now make money off of sellling the option to have a media player on their computers, but lets be honest, the time where this could have had an impact is past. Other than Apple and Sony, name one other digital media player that doesn't use WMP or WMA. PlaysForSure has made "sure" that WMP10 is a requirement to download DRM protected songs for almost all media players.

[Mike Temporale]

But WMP has been part of Windows for as long as I can remember. WMP was there long before WinAmp and MP3's where even around. So why should they NOW have to remove it?

I fear the results of this discussion will effect users far more than they expect. :?

[James Fee]

You think? Who would remove it and why?

[Felix Torres]

You think? Who would remove it and why?

???
1- Microsoft, of course.
2- to comply with the bureaucrats' ruling.

MS will now ship two new versions of Windows XP without any multimedia features whaysover except for sound recorder and movie maker, solely for the euro market. They will cost *exactly* the same as the versions with full multimedia capability.

And to make sure everybody understands what they are *not* getting, thanks to their non-elected "protectors", MS will call the product WINDOWS XP REDUCED MEDIA EDITION. :lol:

The real question is who will choose to buy a box with the crippleware on it considering it has *no* media playback or *management* features whatsoever. Outside of france, of course... :twisted:

http://news.com.com/Microsoft+readies+scaled-back+Windows/2100-1016_3-5501485.html?tag=nefd.top

[James Fee]

It truth they should just market it as.....

Windows XP Reduced Functionality Edition

[EscapePod]

I agree with James Fee. Just because the excessive European governments want it removed, doesn't mean the U.S. should suffer for it.

Where will this B.S. stop? What gets me is that in his summary of the new (&amp; missing) stuff in Windows XP SP2, Paul Therrott chastised Microsoft for NOT including an antivirus program, with free definition updates forever. Wouldn't the EU have fun tearing MS apart for doing that? Not to mention the lawsuits from Symantec, McAfee, and TrendMicro, right here in the U.S.

I say, if its unfair to the other companies, who's stopping endusers from buying or downloading a competitive product? The other companies could come up with their own OS, or join the Linux movement. Wusses!

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Inertia, that's why. You and I may get something else, but many won't, and that's what MS is counting on, and that's what rival companies fear.

To say that MS isn't getting an advantage out of this whole "integrating" thing is being very blind.

[EscapePod]

Lee, why shouldn't Microsoft get an advantage from this? They have the most time and money invested in the whole system.

As you stated, you and I may be able to change an app to whatever we prefer (for example, although I like WMP very much, I use MusicMatch more often), but the typical enduser may not want to be bothered with having to load more software to make their system useable out of the box. (of course, we all know those folks should be using Apple products anyway :lol: ).

[Felix Torres]

The issue is not one of applications but of DLL's and API's.
Windows Media Player is *not* an application but a platform upon which applications can be built. WMP provides a collection of features (coders, decoders, Id3 tag editors, meta-data tracking, etc) that, by all rational thought *belongs* in a modern multimedia OS. Most of the "offending" features were a part of the OS long before any whiney (or in this case whinge-ing) wanna-bees even thought there might be money to be made of PC media files.

The only reasons bureaucrats and pundits rag on MS over integration is because:
a) they are an american company dominant on the world arena (like Boeing and Monsanto and Intel; also companies that the EU is making war on)
b) they compare the 90's-vintage Windows architecture to the 70's vintage UNIX orthodoxy wherein the kernal is the OS and *everything else* is an application. Including rendering engines and file management and transport systems. Riiiigghhhttt...!

The plain and simple fact is that XP was designed as a net-centric, media-centric OS and that those functions *properly* belong in a forward-looking, contemporary OS and no amount of trying to buy time for euro-spawned alternatives will succeed. Because none exist or will succeed, bureaucratic meddling or not.

Bureaucrats have no business making product design decisions.
Fortunately the only folks getting reamed (if they're stupid enough to buy XP Reduced Media Edition) are the same people that allow their bureaucrats to run their lives. Which means they deserve what they're getting.

Since the crippleware will only be available in their domain, the rest of us can continue living in the 21st century.

Or as Ian Fleming so aptly put it: live and let die...

Now, all MS needs to do is offer an XP multimedia step-up package for $50 euros to restore the features the eurocrats ordered removed. :-)

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

but the typical enduser may not want to be bothered with having to load more software to make their system useable out of the box. (of course, we all know those folks should be using Apple products anyway :lol: ).

That is another point. I suppose in a way, it's something that can't be dropped out of now. Even I have to depend on IE to get my preferred browser first on a new computer!