What a sham.

I'd guess that Microsoft makes 1.3B in profit from Europe every quarter. Maybe some one will look up some figures. But if they're making that much, they should keep being obstinent.

Erm, guys... the UK is part of the EU. And Coca-Cola, a country can very easily be both democratic and socialist.

ssj12, the UK's health system (a socialist health system) rips the US health system to shreds.

And the fine was entirely fair.

SamuelRSmith said: Erm, guys... the UK is part of the EU. And Coca-Cola, a country can very easily be both democratic and socialist. ssj12, the UK's health system (a socialist health system) rips the US health system to shreds. And the fine was entirely fair.

 I know planty of Canadians that hate their country's healthcare system.  Most come down to America as the doctors actually give a damnabout what they are doing.

Private insurance + your choice in doctor = A+

bdbdbd said: At first i'd like to point out, that Europe didn't fine anyone, since there's no such instance as "Europe" that could fine anyone. It was EU that fined M$. 900 million Euros is a nice pile of money, and in practice this means, that Vista prices are going up. @Legend: If you didn't read the article, M$ had more than 3 years time to put it in order, so they did have enough time to deal with it. The fines are usually lowered if certain terms are fulfilled, like in this case. The reason why "no european company" gets fined that high, is because they fix things after getting warned. In this case, M$ had 120 days to fix things before getting fined. At first the european commission placed a daily fine of 1 million Euros, then it was raised to 2 million and finally to 3 million. Now any european company wouldn't want to keep collecting fines for that long, so the reason for M$ getting fined so much was because they wanted to. @Food: No, they're charging M$ so much because M$ knows their HQ is walled with gold bricks. @ssj: Do you happen to know how well 8.4 beta works? Any big issues? I had problems with 7.10 and my laptops graphics card, so i'm hoping 8.4 will have better compatibility.

 

read this: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/02/25/ubuntu_8_04_alpha_5_released/1

 

ps it allows you to install it over windows without effecting Windows or partitioning the HDD. 

 

ssj12 said: SamuelRSmith said: Erm, guys... the UK is part of the EU. And Coca-Cola, a country can very easily be both democratic and socialist. ssj12, the UK's health system (a socialist health system) rips the US health system to shreds. And the fine was entirely fair. I know planty of Canadians that hate their country's healthcare system. Most come down to America as the doctors actually give a damnabout what they are doing. Private insurance + your choice in doctor = A+

I'm Canadian and I don't know of any Canadians that hate Canada's healthcare system or would prefer the U.S.'s system over Canada's.  Not one.  As for private insurers, they have people on their payrolls with job duties that consist of trying to deny paying for needed medical treatment.

Erik Aston said: What a sham. I'd guess that Microsoft makes 1.3B in profit from Europe every quarter. Maybe some one will look up some figures. But if they're making that much, they should keep being obstinent.

That's what they thought when the fine was just a million per day. You see, EU raise the fine if it doesn't have desired effect. So theoretically you could eventually get fined more than what the companys revenue is (not to mention profit).

ssj12 said: SamuelRSmith said: Erm, guys... the UK is part of the EU. And Coca-Cola, a country can very easily be both democratic and socialist. ssj12, the UK's health system (a socialist health system) rips the US health system to shreds. And the fine was entirely fair.  I know planty of Canadians that hate their country's healthcare system.  Most come down to America as the doctors actually give a damnabout what they are doing. Private insurance + your choice in doctor = A+

I don't know how the canadian system works, but don't they have an option to get the private insurance? And don't they have laws that shitty care may even get the doctor to prison? At least here in Finland, we have the option to get private insurance. I have private insurance by my work (collective for the whole company), my kids have private insurances. My wife doesn't, but she had one when she was a kid. I don't personally have any complaints about the public healthcare itself, but the lines are shit. It usually takes months to get into an operation or you may have to wait for hours to get to see the doctor, if you don't have anything that requires immediate care. So what about if you don't have the money for insurance? How are you going to get treatment and medication? Thanks for the link. Have to check it out. So it installs itself over Windows, without running the OS from live CD? It doesn't really matter to me, since as soon as i get Ubuntu to work on my laptop, Vista is gone.

European governments have a twisted sense of economic justice. These are the same governments that fund commercial enterprises to compete with privately owned commercial enterprises. Microsoft flaunted the last fine, and they will flaunt this fine, and why should they cede an economic advantage they earned. Windows isn't a god given gift to the world its the property of a corporation. Europe has a problem with that I suppose they can fund their own software company to develop a operating system.

You might gather I take issue with Europe's trading practices. Much of the rest of the world has similar issues. Excessive tariffs, standardization, unfair competition always favoring the local company over the one based in another country. So I put very little credence in what European's consider to be fair or unfair. When a free trade economy says the competition is unfair then I take greater interest.

Dodece said: European governments have a twisted sense of economic justice. These are the same governments that fund commercial enterprises to compete with privately owned commercial enterprises. Microsoft flaunted the last fine, and they will flaunt this fine, and why should they cede an economic advantage they earned. Windows isn't a god given gift to the world its the property of a corporation. Europe has a problem with that I suppose they can fund their own software company to develop a operating system. You might gather I take issue with Europe's trading practices. Much of the rest of the world has similar issues. Excessive tariffs, standardization, unfair competition always favoring the local company over the one based in another country. So I put very little credence in what European's consider to be fair or unfair. When a free trade economy says the competition is unfair then I take greater interest.

How exactly would a free trade economy say anything? As far as I know, economy has no official representative.

I'm probably not understanding your point, could you please explain?

PS: The reason MS should pay the fine is that they have to play by the rules of the markets they participate in. Are you aware that EU can confiscate MS's assets if they don't pay the fine? For example, retaining revenue from the sales of MS products in the EU, until the fine is paid.

 

ssj12 said: SamuelRSmith said: Erm, guys... the UK is part of the EU. And Coca-Cola, a country can very easily be both democratic and socialist. ssj12, the UK's health system (a socialist health system) rips the US health system to shreds. And the fine was entirely fair.  I know planty of Canadians that hate their country's healthcare system.  Most come down to America as the doctors actually give a damnabout what they are doing. Private insurance + your choice in doctor = A+

 Since when did the UK = Canada? I know we share the same Queen, and both play in the Commonwealth Games, but that's really as far as it goes.