Please, think about what you are typing.
@DD1238 - If you had taken the time to read, assuming that your literacy level is high enough to comprehend the article, you'd understand that *Opera* had made the comment and the EC has basically ignored it. Also, Microsoft would not pull out of the European market. It is quite a bit larger than the US market and far more lucrative. Withdrawing would leave a gaping hole for Apple/Linux to get a serious foothold/market share, which would almost definitely bite Microsoft on the arse. You can say what you like about Microsoft, one thing is definitely true, they are astute in business. Alienating 250 million customers, possibly more with enterprise taken into account, would be financial and business suicide.
@vincent himpe - Quick economics lesson. There is no such thing as a 'pure monopoly', you mean a 'natural monopoly'. You are correct when you attest that Microsoft aren't a monopoly, and neither have they been 'convicted' of being a monopoly - they have been convicted of abuse of dominant position. They are without argument the 'Dominant Firm' in the OS market place (the terms are from the Glossary of Industrial Organisation Economics and Competition Law, compiled by R. S. Khemani and D. M. Shapiro, commissioned by the Directorate for Financial, Fiscal and Enterprise Affairs, OECD, 1993 [http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/8/61/2376087.pdf] - not Wiki-shitting-pedia). The business in question must have more than 40% market share to be considered a dominant firm. As most of you Microsofties like to constantly point out, Microsoft have anywhere between 80% and 90% market domination, depending on which stats site you decide to believe. The following is from the OECD;
'A dominant firm is one which accounts for a significant share of a given market and has a significantly larger market share than its next largest rival. Dominant firms are typically considered to have market shares of 40 per cent or more.'
That description pretty much defines the position Microsoft find themselves in. The EC have found that Microsoft have been in abuse of dominant position. Again, from the OECD;
'The term abuse of dominant position refers to anticompetitive business practices in which a dominant firm may engage in order to maintain or increase its position in the market.'
Hence the action taken against Microsoft (the '...in order to maintain or increase its position in the market.' bit) and not the competitive fringes that are Apple/Linux/Sun. For the avoidance of doubt, from the same document;
'Anticompetitive practices refer to a wide range of business practices in which a firm or group of firms may engage in order to restrict inter-firm competition to maintain or increase their relative market position and profits without necessarily providing goods and services at a lower cost or of higher quality.'
QED.
The rest of your post falls into irrelevancy (citizenship as an example? Really?!) and poor spelling (easily resolved if you used a browser that had a spell-checker, Opera perhaps...). Just something to note. Dell sell consumer PC's pre-installed with Ubuntu and HP sell the same pre-installed with SUSE and Red Hat/Fedora, System 76 seem to be doing quite well out of Ubuntu-only solutions too. Yes, some is server iron, but with the exception of IBM who do not sell *any* desktop/notebook hardware, sell consumer PC pre-installed with Linux. Your point?
@DaveyBoy - Apple may be controlling when it comes to the App Store, but monopolist they ain't. Again, the Nokia/Microsoft chaps like to remind us that Apple don't have a particularly high market share (3% of the *smartphone* market globally?). So tell me, taking into account the above information about "Dominant Firms', why should the EC investigate Apple, other than to give poor 'ickle Microsoft a break?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
