Soooo... how come Apple hasn't been sued since all you can use with their computers is Safari??

The really stupid argument that EU is offering is that Microsoft is the leader and thus has to be picked on.

My thoughts on this pretty much line up with nordlead. And he'd even do something similar to what I would do- not offer any browser. What's that? You need to get online to download Firefox? Sorry, but the way we gave you prior to choose was forcefully removed. There is no internet browser. Hope you have an installer! Oh... you don't? Well, since Windows Update runs through the shell, we can offer you IE8 as an optional download, free of charge! (Though admittingly, I also like the CD idea.)

As things are right now, I can choose whether I want to use IE, Chrome, or what. Hell, if I were that adamant against IE, I could get Opera, then go into the settings and disable access to IE! I don't need a court order, an EU build, or any of that crap- it's already all there! And guess what? It's all free!

The choice has always existed; IE is offered to give you a gateway to said choice. Sorry, but no company should ever be forced to advertise for their competitors. Last gen, why didn't the EU force Sony to advertise for Nintendo and Microsoft? Why doesn't Apple have to advertise for Sanzo MP3 players? They both have (or had) a bigger share of the market than IE, yet no ridiculous ruling came against them. As scat said, the EU sees MS as their personal ATM, except that they've never really made a deposit into the account. Isn't that some sort of crime itself...?

I doubt Microsoft would give their software away for free, considering how overpriced their services are. But I doubt they would remove their web browser because I'm sure they have to be making money off that

Microsoft already gives away their browser free, just like every other browser made by any other company. I guess in the past you had to pay for some browsers, but it hasn't been that way for quite some time. Essentially by giving away a free CD, you make the EU happy by not bundling the software, but you keep your customers using your software.

I agree with you but don't you think it will cost more to have to put them on CDs and give them for free versus having them already installed in ur PC?

They charge $1 more for the OS, then they make more profit as 100% of the purchasers won't take a CD, so you actually come out on top. It would work, if it wasn't for the fact that the consumer would feel totally screwed if they didn't realize they needed to take one of the CDs.

No matter who's fault it is, people would blame Windows. I mean, the government has already decided people aren't smart enough to download browsers... If they're right, they probably wouldn't know who's fault it is that they can't get online, either. But if MS did that, then Macs would still be allowed to bundle a browser, just like every other OS, so it would only be Windows that comes without the web being enabled. That would be bad. So they selected an option that wouldn't risk impacting OS marketshare.

In the end, it's all just stupid, though. IE has what, 58% marketshare? and falling? I could see if IE was still 80+% of the market, and noone could compete, but new guys (Firefox, Chrome) have popped up, and are consistently taking marketshare. And you know how they do this? By offering some cool features IE doesn't. And their success is a result. It's almost as if IE being a Titan forces companies to try harder, thus benefitting consumers further.  If I didn't know better, I'd think that's what capitalism is all about.

Spain was doing very well a few years ago,  the (biggest) growing bank sector in Europe, the biggest Economic growth ( Between 2003 and 2005, 39% of euro-area growth came from Spain). but the crisis hit them hard.  Many EU citizens invested in building a house in Spain but thanks to the crisis many don't want it anymore and can't pay for the house anymore. This makes a lot of 'housebuilders' (don't know the name in English) don't get their money and got bankrupt.  To give you an idea in Spain their almost more houses empty than in USA while Spain has a population of 40 million and USA 330 million?  

It hit them so hard that the unemployed rate in Spain now is 18% and they are expecting that it could go up till 25% next year.

Like 99,9999% of the global population nobody expected a crisis and can we blame Spain for the problems they have now?

Oh yes you can blame who you want, especially in 2007 you may blame them and I will agree with it but blaming them for their problems now is in my eyes just not fair they couldn't know. We should be happy that so long no bank in spain didn't went bankrupt kind of an achievement considering how many bank went bankrupt the last years.