US government: no antitrust concerns about Vista

Vikingod · Nov 23, 2006, 01:35 PM

Source: ars technica
___________
Vista and IE7 have received a clean bill of health from the government team overseeing Microsoft's compliance with the US antitrust ruling (PDF) against it.

For the last several years, Microsoft has been documenting Windows protocols and middleware systems to ensure that third-party applications can take full advantage of the operating system's architecture. The company has also worked with the government to develop a special bug-tracking system for Vista designed to make sure that Vista's middleware has no known antitrust issues when the OS is released. In a new joint status report (PDF) on Microsoft's compliance, the plaintiffs agreed that "this system has been a success" and that developers who rely on middleware should be well-prepared for Vista.

bug77 · Nov 23, 2006, 01:46 PM

Hm. Yet the 'developers who rely on middleware' say otherwise.

Bar81 · Nov 23, 2006, 02:06 PM

Whew. I'm so glad that the current administration has blessed Vista given their track record of standing up for consumers and not whoring themselves out completely to business interests.

WaltC · Nov 23, 2006, 03:10 PM

Yes, investing billions of dollars and millions of paid-employee man hours to create computer operating systems that people voluntarily buy is just so wicked, isn't it? Yes, it's too bad governments don't "stand up" to these evil companies so that consumers might live more righteously in a world of a very few (but government-approved!) product choices and sky-high prices, isn't it?

But then, if that happened, what would happen to the government when it found its tax revenues severely constrained by the lack of business activity its policies would create? Never fear, though, because unlike the evil and wicked corporations who only want to make products for you to choose from and sell them to you at competitive prices, the righteous and holy governments will just "stand up" to you and levy more taxes you must pay (without any choice, of course), and then when that's not enough of the filthy lucre to satisfy the government it will just borrow money from future generations without ever having sought your consent in the process.

Truly. who could ever argue with the premise that the fact that you don't have to buy Vista if you don't want to is surely the result of evil, but the fact that you have to pay dozens of different taxes every day whether you want to or not, is a fact to be celebrated and cheered? Three cheers for the government--hip-hip-hooray! Hip-hip--

GAH---what am I saying? Heh!...

One of the things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving is the fact that it's Microsoft, Apple, Sun, IBM and others who write the operating systems we can choose from, instead of the government!....

Iria · Nov 23, 2006, 04:25 PM

This is a duplicate post. Please continue discussion here.

Nov 23, 2006, 01:35 PM	#1
Vikingod Int'l Fish Liaison Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: By the light of lamp I sit and type... Posts: 16,197 Rep Power: 112 System Specs	US government: no antitrust concerns about Vista Source: ars technica ___________ Vista and IE7 have received a clean bill of health from the government team overseeing Microsoft's compliance with the US antitrust ruling (PDF) against it. For the last several years, Microsoft has been documenting Windows protocols and middleware systems to ensure that third-party applications can take full advantage of the operating system's architecture. The company has also worked with the government to develop a special bug-tracking system for Vista designed to make sure that Vista's middleware has no known antitrust issues when the OS is released. In a new joint status report (PDF) on Microsoft's compliance, the plaintiffs agreed that "this system has been a success" and that developers who rely on middleware should be well-prepared for Vista.

Nov 23, 2006, 02:06 PM	#3
Bar81 DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: UAE Posts: 176 Rep Power: 0	Whew. I'm so glad that the current administration has blessed Vista given their track record of standing up for consumers and not whoring themselves out completely to business interests. __________________ Opteron 170 l Scythe Ninja l Sapphire A9RD580 PURE Crossfire l 2x 1024MB Mushkin Redline XP4000 l ATI X1800 XL l Terratec DMX 6fire with Roland SCB-55 MIDI l JMicron JMB360 PCI-E x1 eSATA l WD740GD Raptor l 2x WD SE16 500GB (RAID 1) l 2x Maxtor MaXline III 300GB (RAID 1) l BenQ 1640B l Antec P180 l Silverstone SST-30NF 300W Fanless

Nov 23, 2006, 01:46 PM	#2
bug77 DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: around Posts: 792 Rep Power: 0	Hm. Yet the 'developers who rely on middleware' say otherwise.

Nov 23, 2006, 03:10 PM	#4
WaltC DriverHeaven Addict Join Date: May 2003 Location: Deep in Martian soil where it's warm and the air is good Posts: 245 Rep Power: 0	Yes, investing billions of dollars and millions of paid-employee man hours to create computer operating systems that people voluntarily buy is just so wicked, isn't it? Yes, it's too bad governments don't "stand up" to these evil companies so that consumers might live more righteously in a world of a very few (but government-approved!) product choices and sky-high prices, isn't it? But then, if that happened, what would happen to the government when it found its tax revenues severely constrained by the lack of business activity its policies would create? Never fear, though, because unlike the evil and wicked corporations who only want to make products for you to choose from and sell them to you at competitive prices, the righteous and holy governments will just "stand up" to you and levy more taxes you must pay (without any choice, of course), and then when that's not enough of the filthy lucre to satisfy the government it will just borrow money from future generations without ever having sought your consent in the process. Truly. who could ever argue with the premise that the fact that you don't have to buy Vista if you don't want to is surely the result of evil, but the fact that you have to pay dozens of different taxes every day whether you want to or not, is a fact to be celebrated and cheered? Three cheers for the government--hip-hip-hooray! Hip-hip-- GAH---what am I saying? Heh!... One of the things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving is the fact that it's Microsoft, Apple, Sun, IBM and others who write the operating systems we can choose from, instead of the government!....

Nov 23, 2006, 04:25 PM	#5
Iria DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 7,275 Rep Power: 89	This is a duplicate post. Please continue discussion here.