WereKitten on 24 April 2009
| Squilliam said: I have a question, if giving IE/WM player away killed the competition then: 1. Why are there so many video player alternatives, yet they are all free? 2. If Linux is given away for free when Microsoft has to charge for their software, isn't that anti-competitive too? Should Linux cost people money as well to make it fair? |
It did not kill the competition, but it surely damaged it. And the price is not the issue (price is just a component of product value), the combination of bundling/monpolistic marketshare is what was found unfair in court.
1) I don't get the point. They are mostly free because WMP is free, so they had to find other revenue sources. Same as browsers, with Opera first going with ads and Firefox gathering money from its Google searchbar.
2) Once again, price is not the issue: MS is free to give Windows away at no cost, too. If Linux was a single commercial entity in a monopolistic position then it would have to be watched closely as well.
