Microsoft fined £343 Million by EU Court
 

Old news by now, given how fast it travels. But a couple of days ago Microsoft was fined £343 Million by the EU court. This has been done in accordance with Microsoft being found guilty of breaching EU regulations regarding it's products. This fine is currently the biggest on record. It comes after complaints about how Microsoft had not been letting smaller companies make their own way in the market, also hindered because of Microsoft's reluctance to make their products available to these smaller companies, which hindered attempts to make software compatible with Windows and associated products.

Microsoft plan to appeal against this ruling.

Personally I am glad to see a shot taken at Globalisation. Too many smaller companies who could do better are being drummed out by the leviathan which are huge companies. Microsoft have held the market by the neck for a while. Hopefully this will mean we can expect a much more diverse market in the future.

You realise that's probably less than 0.01% of their average annual profit. :P

Now if only the court had Chuck Norris as it's judge and Vin Diesel, Arnie and Bruce Lee as prosecutors :P

That would do nothing. I don't think there's any call for sarcasm, as I believe I expressed to you in another thread. You seem to turn every thread into a joke now instead of contributing something meaningful. I don't mean to come down too hard on you, but I've been biting my tongue on this for too long now.

Bearing in mind I was replying to Jez's sarcasm in this instance. And I had thought you may have noticed I've TRIED to be more serious in other topics. I see your point. But I am trying to make the effort to reduce it I hope. I honestly have been listening to you Danny. I had thought some note of that would have been taken in recent days.

I guess it stems form the fact im a troubled guy. Theres always something tugging at my mind and I just don't know how to get it off my back. It's been a rough couple of years.

No worries, it's just something to keep in mind for most of the threads on here. Also, Jez was making a more serious comment. Yours was way out of left field. :P

Microsoft got what it deserved. If only more companies got their asses kicked like that.

Millions of companies spring to mind, Personally i wonder if Fox news is just a huge trolling experiment.

Hopefully I will just be happy if things can become a tad easier to install on Windows, a lot of stuff i seemed to put on had some stupid issues.

Yeah it may seem like a large amount of money but like Jex said, probably less than 0.01% of their annual profits.

Don't get me wrong, for once, I agree with the EU. But I think M$'s appeal is more for PR than for financial worry, ;)

Yeah, I don't doubt that for a moment.

It would not surprise me in the slightest. But at least this shot in the arm shows Microsoft are not invulnerable.

Agreed. I'm waiting for something substantial happen to tear them down from their throne.

Would Bill Gates' death be a start?

They'd try to save him by turning him into a cyborg. Then again, if Vista's the best they have by then he'd probably 'splode.

Bill Gates' death wouldn't destroy Microsoft at all. The only thing that can destroy micro$oft is if everyone in the world goes "destroy microsoft!" all at the same time. Then Danny will go all blue and be able to levitate, and have other powers such as the ability do destroy microsoft etc. :P

While writing this, I came to the conclusion that the only good bit in LOTTL is when the Master goes "BUT IT'S NOT FAIR!!" just before his demise.

And Murray Gold's electronic Master music. It's made of anti-fail.

Anti-fail. The stuff that Mac circuit boards are made of? I could kill for some of that stuff. And I'm not talking about an easy kill like killing MArk :P (not that I'm saying that mark couldn't defend himself, but he is the only person I have ever considered actually killing in my life)

Jeez, the first worthwhile non-DW related thread to be posted for a long time and you guys immediately revert it back to being DW-related. :(

There's a forum section for that stuff you know... :S

Bill Gates does very little in the running of M$ nowadays. In fact, I'd be surprised if he does anything at all. There are a hell of a lot of big wigs that surround him and do most of the top brass work themselves.

They have mighty fine salaries and a good enough business knowledge to not f*ck M$ up so it's likely the company will have a firm hold on this market for a long time (notwithstanding any major changes in the public opinion of their competitors (i.e. Linux suddenly become uber popular, Apple suddenly becoming the suite that every home user wants)).

It's all Steve Ballmer behind Microsoft now. Have you seen him? The guy is f*cking insane. Search for him on YouTube.

The Ballmer is not inert?

In particular, this.

What the hell? :P If only Microsoft was as passionate.

And especially this derivative video.

And this advertisment for Windows 1.0...except in Nebraska http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tGvHNNOLnCk
And this video which proves that Steve Ballmer loves Apple...Bill Gates is gonna be pissed :P:P:P

Hint: First look at the site's banner. Then dry your eyes.

Seconded. :P

Thirded. ;)

A Billionthed.

Here's another reason why Microsoft should be fined: http://www.n4g.com/News-70167.aspx

My copy is set to arrive by post tomorrow... I'll be gutted if it's scratched.

I beat Halo just before :)

Ah excellent, it arrived unscratched(or so it appears) by some miracle. I can see the problem, the ring doesnt even have a clip or anything it's just a stump.

Im rationing my time on single player, I dont want to beat the game too quickly. Atm, im at the part where the Flood just landed.

You do realize that Microsoft said an that only an extremely small percentage of discs released had the scratch problem, right? And it wasn't because of the case design, it was because of a screwup at the factory. And if I recall correctly, it affects North America only.

It's good to know that with all the war, death and destruction going on in the world, God still has time to make sure your Halo disks arrive unscratched, eh? ;)

You're about 1/3 through.

Since when did you start believing anything Microsoft said? :D

Fair point. Although I have no reason to believe that they are lying, they are Microsoft. So I withdraw my earlier comment. :P

Don't give away anything about it please =P Im asking around Uni in case someone has a copy. heh :)

Snape kills Master Chief!

Actually... my disc did arrive loose in the box, but it wasn't scratched.

And I finally finished the fight on Saturday, that was a brilliant game. Btw, im glad you mentioned that cutscene after the credits RV, or id probably have cursed that ending lol.

Hey, remember that this is Halo 3 we're talking about, of course he does.

I make a point of watching the credits in games because you often find extras after them, but this was a particularly important extra.

In the beginning, Steve Ballmer created Xbox.

And the Xbox was without a particularly good form; and Microsoft was out of it's depth.

Then God said, "Let there be Halo." And there was Halo.

And God played Halo, and said it was good (gave it 9.5/10). And God lifted the Xbox from the darkness.

And so the greatest thing in the world was born ;)