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Microsoft to remove the Calculator from Windows

News from Repeou:

The country Repeou threatens Microsoft to pay a fine as much as 10 percent of its global annual sales for monopoly defenses. The software giant is abusing its monopoly power by bundling several applications such as the Calculator and Paint with Windows.

The process against Microsoft was started by the company named Nisbum. Nisbum developed a great calculator but doesn't see a chance to sell this great product to the masses as long as Microsoft bundles the Calculator with Windows.

According to Repeou, Microsoft must offer at least two separate versions of Windows, one version without the Calculator.

Repeou is giving Microsoft a last opportunity to comment before the case is concluded.

Christian

What are the boundaries of an operating system? The boundaries of operating systems shouldn't be defined by governments, and they shouldn't be defined by competitors.

 

 

 

Update (too many readers take this serious):
This story is a joke - related to the EU case against Microsoft. There is no country with the name Repeou, and I don't know a company named Nisbum. However, you can rearrange the letters of the country and company, and you will get some real values here. BTW, two companies ;-)

Posted: Mar 25 2004, 09:30 AM by CNagel | with 55 comment(s)
Filed under:

Comments

Iain said:

I agree that competitors and governments shouldn't set the boundaries of an operating system - but I'm not convinced that vendors should.
# March 25, 2004 5:35 AM

TrackBack said:

# March 25, 2004 8:26 AM

Chris said:

I can't believe this. What a joke! Like the fast-food lawsuits, next, people will be trying to sue Microsoft for "forcing" them to use a mouse.
# March 25, 2004 10:45 AM

Matt Hawley said:

That is just insane. The calculator in windows has been around much longer than this company probably. When did the calculator show up, Windows 1 or 3.1?
# March 25, 2004 10:50 AM

JD said:

Google doesn't return any hits for "nisbum calculator" or for "Repeou".
# March 25, 2004 11:25 AM

Jim Bolla said:

Is this satire or just insanity?
# March 25, 2004 11:26 AM

Christian said:

Of course there is nor real country like Repeou, and I don't know a company Nisbum. However you can turn the letters around for something meaningful.
# March 25, 2004 11:26 AM

Christian said:

Matt, JD, Jim - this is satire. Compare it with the current EU lawsuit (WMP) and an older US lawsuit (IE) to get your own opinion about it.
# March 25, 2004 11:34 AM

Jon Galloway said:

Christian-
I have developed a superior brand of satire but am unable to sell it because you're bundling it with your blog. Our lawyers will be contacting you.
-MetaSarcasm.com, Inc.
# March 25, 2004 11:47 AM

Shannon J Hager said:

Followup:
Bill Gates says that MS will no longer sell Windows in Repeou due the impossibility of removing Calc.exe from the operating system. "Without Calc, Windows can not add or subtract and probably wouldn't even boot," one Microsoft employee stated to the court. The court's requests for MS to allow Dell to sell a "non-calc" version was met with a staged BSOD (Bill brought a VCR+TV combo and told the court it was a new keyboard-less PC). "See? Take Calc oot, machine won't boot!" Steve Balmer said about 40 time while sweating profusely and running, jumping and clapping around the court room.

Eventually, the court saw through the ruse and demanded that MS not remove Calc as the original poster erroneously stated, but to allow OEMs to uninstall Calc and replace it with another software calculator before selling their machines to consumers.

Nisbum, who has only sold 1 copy of his calculator program, was unable to afford cab fare and missed the hearing.
# March 25, 2004 11:51 AM

David Cumps said:

great! ;)
# March 25, 2004 12:56 PM

Dumky said:

Why not have everything (WMP, calc, paint, explorer,...) be a package that OEMs could replace?
This might also help for security and small installs: just pick the packages you want. You might even have the choice between multiple media players or window managers...
This will also help MS in future lawsuits. If Repeou wants a version without WMP, it's really easy for MS to do so, just change a config file for EU CDs.
Of course, since the Microsoft packages will be better, the best distro will be the MS one. But competitors won't complain about MS not being fair play.
# March 25, 2004 1:49 PM

Christian said:

Dumky, there is a very good reason not to create many different packages: as an application developer I want to know what's available with the operating system. My applications use features that are already there, I'm not rewriting code because I'm not sure if it's on the desktop of the user.

Because you mentionn Linux - how is this with Linux? This is a very similar problem with Linux! And this is the reason why RedHat is gaining market share and all other distributions are loosing.
# March 25, 2004 2:10 PM

TrackBack said:

GRC.COM Discussions
# March 25, 2004 2:14 PM

Aki Björklund said:

"as an application developer I want to know what's available with the operating system. My applications use features that are already there, I'm not rewriting code because I'm not sure if it's on the desktop of the user. "

Do you really develop programs that need Calculator, Paint or WMP? Gimmeabreak. Opereting systems should be what operating systems really are: a platform to run applications. In this case, that might include a collection of codecs and an easy-to-use API to play video and sound and download more codecs. NOT a format crippled animated multimedia circus with an embedded web browser and a CD burner.
# March 25, 2004 2:59 PM

Christian said:

Aki,
Internet Explorer is a lot more than the user interface. Visual Studio is an example of an application that makes use of the WebBrowser control. I'm also using the WebBrowser control in my applications, and I'm using API calls that are part of the WebBrowser.
The same is true for the WMP. WMP is more than the user interface. Some accessibility options make use of WMP.
OK, now you may say that MS should leave this in the OS and just remove the UI. This was never an option. The governments always asked to remove the features completely and not just turn the UI off (US with Internet Explorer and EU with WMP).
# March 25, 2004 3:16 PM

TrackBack said:

Bink.nu Microsoft Technology News
# March 25, 2004 4:10 PM

Aki Björklund said:

Internet Explorer is is not more than the UI. The (seriously out-of-date) rendering engine is a separate component that can be used, like you said, in any application.

I am not an anti-MS idiot. I just hate crappy bundled software that slow down competition and innovation.
# March 25, 2004 4:20 PM

Guldifet con said:

Whats a calculator?
# March 25, 2004 6:51 PM

niggerknocker said:

omg, dongs. LOLOL.
# March 25, 2004 6:59 PM

TrackBack said:

neowin.net
# March 26, 2004 12:40 AM

TrackBack said:

# March 26, 2004 4:11 AM

TrackBack said:

# March 26, 2004 5:01 AM

TrackBack said:

Windows Server 2003 Portal Uzytkowników
# March 26, 2004 7:17 AM

Chris C. said:

I guess we should have auto makers remove the radios from cars since they are not needed for the automobile to provide its intended function. I just hate crappy bundled stock stereos that slow down competition and innovation.

What an idiot.
# March 26, 2004 9:43 AM

hast said:

Heh. Microsoft should be forced to remove the graphical user interface as well! Does anyone care about the companies that create graphical user interfaces?
# March 26, 2004 10:46 AM

Duh said:


Look, the law is the law, break it and you get punished. European law applies to all people doing business or living in Europe - REGARDLESS of your companies nationality, or the size of your home countries GDP, or the size of your standing army (ad nauseum).

Fast and loose is no way to go in legal matters, and Microsoft are exactly that.
# March 26, 2004 11:55 AM

Brian R. James said:

Microsoft included native support for hard drives in what? MS-DOS 3. Native support for mice in MS-DOS 4. How dare Microsoft drive the poor device driver vendors out of business. Media Player is just an advanced version of Microsoft Sound and Microsoft Recorder which have been in the OS since 3.0.
# March 26, 2004 12:14 PM

pds said:

Secretgeek has a similar entry. It's funny, check it out:



www16.brinkster.com/messydesk/db/MsCompuCalc.asp
# March 26, 2004 12:26 PM

SecretGeek said:

top stuff Christian! ;+)
(great minds think alike hey)
# March 28, 2004 3:00 AM

Aki Björklund said:

"What an idiot."

You might be. Calling others names while remaining practically anonymous. Why did you feel that offended?

To you bad analogy: no car maker has a MONOPOLY. You guys keep forgetting that. I think that no one company should decide that much of what gets installed on a common desktop.
# March 28, 2004 4:00 AM

CC (!chris c) said:

"You might be. Calling others names while remaining practically anonymous. Why did you feel that offended?"

I do believe Chris C put his name to his post, just because you don't know him doesn't make him anonymous.
# March 28, 2004 7:35 AM

Aki Björklund said:

At least for me he is. Not that I care.
# March 28, 2004 8:07 AM

TrackBack said:

Softwaremaker
# March 29, 2004 12:17 AM

TrackBack said:

Julia Lerman's Blog
# March 29, 2004 12:23 AM

TrackBack said:

ASP.NET Professional
# March 29, 2004 1:15 AM

TrackBack said:

Open Source & EU Case against Microsoft
# March 29, 2004 12:02 PM

TrackBack said:

Thread: A new law suite for microsoft
# March 30, 2004 4:44 AM

TrackBack said:

ClanUK Forum
# March 31, 2004 5:22 PM

TrackBack said:

Saucer
# April 4, 2004 2:06 PM

TrackBack said:

# April 7, 2004 9:54 PM

TrackBack said:

# April 7, 2004 10:33 PM

Fabrice said:

Christian, there is no country named Repeou, but no country named Europe either...
# April 8, 2004 5:53 AM

Christian said:

Fabrice, of course you are correct. I didn't want to make this too easy ;-)
There is also not a single company Nisbum. You have to split it up into two names for two companies.
# April 8, 2004 6:38 AM

Fabrice said:

Oh OK, now I get what Nisbum means :-)
# April 9, 2004 4:54 AM

Peter said:

Nisbum is Sun and Ibm ;)
# April 9, 2004 7:36 AM

Buk said:

I don't buy that bundling IE was illegal. Is there value to the consumer? Yes. What happened to that standard? Does that matter anymore?

Lets say MSFT removes IE...since it is so illegal. Now the first application my 60 year old father has to learn how to use is command line ftp to download the browser he is supposed to care about or have a preference. Please no. Family tech support is bad enough. But then IPSwitch decides that Microsoft including FTP is damaging to their WS-FTP business as well. They take it to the courts and the courts rule that Microsoft needs to remove command line FTP as well. What then? People actually start using the AOL discs they receive in the mail? Noooooooooooooooooooo!
# April 12, 2004 5:48 PM

Christian Nagel said:

Buk, the processes against Microsoft are never about advantages for the consumer.
There is a new process: in South Korea a process was started because of Microsoft bundling the Messenger.
# April 13, 2004 5:09 AM

TrackBack said:

suzhen
# April 20, 2004 6:22 AM

TrackBack said:

Richard Todosichuk's Blog
# April 28, 2004 4:06 PM

TrackBack said:

# May 25, 2004 5:26 AM

TrackBack said:

Christian Nagel hits the nail on the head with his satire of the European Union's ruling against Microsoft.
# May 25, 2004 11:46 AM

SBC said:

"This story is a joke" ?
Don't tell Monti that.. (http://europa.eu.int/comm/commissioners/monti/cv_en.html)..
:-)
# July 6, 2004 3:04 PM

click here said:

I bought this, it works!

# June 30, 2007 8:17 AM

Prevent excessive sweating said:

preventexcessive.com

# July 16, 2007 7:33 AM
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