Re: Can't take it.
posted by rick on September 30th, 2004 at 11:10AM

Wrong.. examples: Mac/Quicktime.. and say any Linux Distro which bundles a media player that plays mp3s. And btw, WMP plays most open formats.

The point is that playing open formats like MP3s don't benefit companies like Microsoft, Real, and Apple because they give their player away anyway. In that respect the Linux distros don't bundle a player that promotes some proprietary format.

You've got a point with Mac/Quicktime though. Funny how they aren't targetted like Microsoft is.

Listening to music, or watching movies is not like eating or drinking or breathing.. you can refuse it and still (gasp) live a normal healthy life.

I'm going to assume that this whole issue arose because people /want/ to view the content, otherwise there isn't much point in discussing this.

MS got hit with a fine for bundling WMP, but they could have easily been blasted for bundling any of the 100 other apps that come with Windows (Paint, Calculator, Notepad, IE etc.)

The only issue against WMP is that it supports Windows Media. The other apps don't have this distinction - Paint doesn't support a MS-specific file format, Calculator doesn't support a MS-specific number system, Notepad doesn't support a MS text format, etc. And there was the uproar with Windows 98 "bundling" IE when it was first released.

Everyone else has the right to refuse to buy their product... and between mac, and linux (which now comes bundled with some HP/Dell packages) there are plenty of viable of alternatives.

I wouldn't go that far. Neither the Mac nor Linux has the application support that Windows currently has. However, there are enough alternatives to the bundled apps out there that no one is forced to use them.

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