Following the announcement that Microsoft lost the EU appeal against removing Windows Media Player from it's Windows XP operating system, what is Microsoft planning for 2005?
It's not yet clear whether work has begun on removing Windows Media Player from XP but if work is planned to start in the New Year then this could significantly delay Longhorn, again. Depending on how Microsoft chose to remove Windows Media Player they may need to recompile different sections of the operating system to ensure there is no shell integration of WMP whatsoever. Changing an operating system and ensuring it has hot fix compatibility may require an external beta test to OEMs and partners. It's a big job and one that will inevitably slow down Longhorn progress.
On a bright note 2005 is the year for Windows Server. Last week I sat down with Mark Tennant (Windows Server Product Manager). Although we joked about WinFS (which should be code-named Hokey Pokey) and I fumed about anywhere access being removed from R2; it still seems that the Windows Server team have a lot of things going on in 2005.
Perhaps most significantly in the first half of 2005 we'll see the first Service Pack released. Taking a lot of security improvements from XPSP2, it aims to deliver increased reliability, scalability, security and performance. According to Mark "From our internal tests we’re seeing 20% more users for ERP business applications, 50% more users per server for Terminal Services."
At around the same time we'll see the Windows Server x64 editions available. "Our approach here is to provide low-cost, high volume 64-bit computing with our partners to a broad segment of the market. Again we’re seeing some big performance improvements in some of the traditional windows workloads (Web Servers, File and Print, Terminal Services) as well as customers running their existing 32-bit apps on the x64 platform."
In the second half of 2005 the team will release Windows Server 2003 "R2" and Windows Server 2003 Compute Cluster Edition. "This will see us supporting high performance hardware and related industry standards such as MPI-2 and RDMA over Ethernet and Infiniband, as well as MPICH".
Windows Update Services is the highly anticipated and highly delayed replacement to SUS (Software Update Services). Currently SUS is lacking in terms of functionality but 2005 looks to be the year that WUS will finally make its debut in the first half.
Keep your browser firmly on Neowin.net for the latest Windows Server news in the new year. May I take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
View: More Information on Windows Server System
It's not yet clear whether work has begun on removing Windows Media Player from XP but if work is planned to start in the New Year then this could significantly delay Longhorn, again. Depending on how Microsoft chose to remove Windows Media Player they may need to recompile different sections of the operating system to ensure there is no shell integration of WMP whatsoever. Changing an operating system and ensuring it has hot fix compatibility may require an external beta test to OEMs and partners. It's a big job and one that will inevitably slow down Longhorn progress.
On a bright note 2005 is the year for Windows Server. Last week I sat down with Mark Tennant (Windows Server Product Manager). Although we joked about WinFS (which should be code-named Hokey Pokey) and I fumed about anywhere access being removed from R2; it still seems that the Windows Server team have a lot of things going on in 2005.
Perhaps most significantly in the first half of 2005 we'll see the first Service Pack released. Taking a lot of security improvements from XPSP2, it aims to deliver increased reliability, scalability, security and performance. According to Mark "From our internal tests we’re seeing 20% more users for ERP business applications, 50% more users per server for Terminal Services."
At around the same time we'll see the Windows Server x64 editions available. "Our approach here is to provide low-cost, high volume 64-bit computing with our partners to a broad segment of the market. Again we’re seeing some big performance improvements in some of the traditional windows workloads (Web Servers, File and Print, Terminal Services) as well as customers running their existing 32-bit apps on the x64 platform."
In the second half of 2005 the team will release Windows Server 2003 "R2" and Windows Server 2003 Compute Cluster Edition. "This will see us supporting high performance hardware and related industry standards such as MPI-2 and RDMA over Ethernet and Infiniband, as well as MPICH".
Windows Update Services is the highly anticipated and highly delayed replacement to SUS (Software Update Services). Currently SUS is lacking in terms of functionality but 2005 looks to be the year that WUS will finally make its debut in the first half.
Keep your browser firmly on Neowin.net for the latest Windows Server news in the new year. May I take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
View: More Information on Windows Server System
Thanks to our very own Radish for giving us the heads-up, using our Back Page News submission forum.
People who buy a retail copy of Windows usually have some vague idea on what they are doing, so it doesn't really effect them that much.
The same Apple that is charging the UK more for iTunes music?
Do you know anything about business? Apple has the right to charge whatever they want, not happy then don't buy. What's the prob? M$ is forcing people to pay crappy WMP when they buy the OS. Go read up on business before spouting crap.
Yea, not before paying for something which I'm not gonna use. You don't seem to see the problem with this, what an ignorant lout.
Why can Apple do it and Microsoft not? Apple is an OEM just like Dell and HP, if MS sold the computers aswell they should have every right to include WMP but they don't.
Apple is not an OEM. Get your facts rite before embarassing yourself.
Why can Apple do it and Microsoft not? Apple is an OEM just like Dell and HP, if MS sold the computers aswell they should have every right to include WMP but they don't.
Since when should the OEM choose for me what media player is bundled in. That just as bad as MS putting in WMP into Windows.
At the moment we have this arrangement
WMP included with Windows > Other Media Player maker wants to sell their product to Dell for example, Dell says "What's the point there is already one in the OS" > Media Player maker has no access to OEM's (or VAR's if you want to be a pedantic little prick) that would account for the majority of all computer sales > WMP and thus WMA/V have an instant userbase based on the success of the OS not the product itself > content producers and device makers realise that because of this arrangement 9x% of their potential customers will have WMP available to them so they decide to encode their content or build their device with compatability for WMP not Real etc > MS has managed to use the monopoly of one product to create another, the development of WMP slows and eventually stops (ref IE), Billy G dances and Ballmer sings - The End.
What we should have
Windows is sold as an OS not a complete solution > Other Media Player maker wants to sell their product to Dell for example, Dell realises that its added value to their systems so the look at the Player makers pitch investigate other offers and buy it > Media Player maker has access to OEM's (or VAR's if you want to be a pedantic little prick) that would account for the majority of all computer sales and makes some money > Media Player maker has an instant userbase based on the quality of the the product itself > Media Player makers and format producers (including MS) have to fight tooth and nail to produce the best player and format with the best value to win contracts with content producers and device makers > MS keeps making WMP better, development never stops and other media player makers and format producers do the same so the products we use just keep getting better and better, you dance, i sing - The End.
Hopefully this will be the last post on WMP in this thread, Tom has less work to do and dances - The End.
He looks like an idiot about everyhitng he posts in any of the microsoft threads
This ruling is purely to give competitiors a chance to compete on a level playing field just as Antivirus, CD/DVD burning application developers and so on and so forth do now, and the benefit to you would be that those companies will compete to the the bitter end so you or the manufacturer that you buy your machine from will give you the user the best product they can so you don't go elsewhere.
Do you know anything about business?
Go read up on business before spouting crap.
Since you obviously believe that Apple is so a great a success that it can teach "M$", why don't you explain to the rest of us why Steve Jobs needed to borrow $150 Million from Microsoft in 1997 to stay in business? Explain to us how it is that Apple—which once had the only viable consumer OS—needed to borrow from Microsoft: a company that was just a snot-nosed upstart when Apple was King. Maybe you can also explain how Apple's behavior is more "ethical" than Microsoft's when it engages in the many of the same business practices? Or better still, maybe you can take your own advice and quit talking out your ass!
Windows is sold as an OS not a complete solution
Why should we have that?
Most Linux distros that are sold in stores bill themselves as a complete solution.
Apple bills the Mac as a complete solution.
Do you think Adobe should have sued Apple for including iMovie and iPhoto in the OS? Or that Microsoft should have sued them for including Safari?
If Microsoft wanted, they could include everything they make with Windows (Office, Visual Studio, some games, etc.) in my opinion.
The burden isn't on them to fail. The burden is on their competition to make a better product.
Anti-trust laws should be just that. If Microsoft were buying up Real, Ogg, MP3, etc. and consolidating all of the competiton under their ownership (or dissolving it altogether)... THAT would be monopolistic behaviour. That would a "trust" in the true sense.
Those laws were meant to keep companies from merging together and fixing prices. They weren't meant to stop companies from having wild success.
I tire easily of this bull****. "Boo hoo... Microsoft is FORCING me to use WMP because it comes with Windows which I'm FORCED to buy because it's clearly the best product and has no viable alternative."
If Microsoft were being unfair, they'd make it difficult or impossible to install competitors' products. It would be unfair if they tried to somehow prevent competitors from building operating systems for x86 computers.
It's the competition's fault there isn't better competition.
If MS wants to offer the complete solution they should do it in the retail version.
Companies like Dell and the rest CHOOSE to sell there computers with a Microsoft operating system because currently for the average desktop its a better choice than Linux, thats something called competition, MS has won the contract over a Linux distro to sell their OS to said manufacturer based on the quality of its product. An OEM such as those mentioned (even Apple) should be seen as a big marketplace to sell software and hardware to consumers and that includes media players and media formats, for instance someone like Dell might CHOOSE to sell their systems with WMP instead of something like Realplayer or Musicmatch but at the moment Dell would not even look at those other two because of WMP being part of the OS.
And this whole forcing people to use WMP does hold up because the typical computer user will only use whats put in front of them for anything thats not specialised, a more true sense of forcing people to use something would be the closed iPod case and jeez i hope the EU does something about that because its not all that different from this case.
Last edited by 63624 on 24 Dec 2004 - 20:54
P.S. shichiroji4, give me your home address so I can beat the **** out of you.
Don't they say that every year? Seems familiar!
So how much did M$ pay EU for this suit? Get your facts straight before sucking up to Bill.
«...It's a big job and one that will inevitably slow down Longhorn progress.»
I want Longhorn release on 2006 and with medias!!!
EU is blocking microsoft teks and innovations.
I hate EU!!!! EU its sooo STUPID!!!
Die Die Die EU!!! I want kill YOU!!
This is an WAR!!!
This either means that they started removing WMP early in anticipation or it's not such a big job at all.
I haven't read the official documents yet, but I think they might just as well release a seperate version called "Windows XP Home Edition for Users Who Don't Like Music and Video"
And offer it to retailers in the EU.
In fact, Microsoft seems to go out of their way to make it easy to communicate and integrate with their products. They make it insanely easy because that's how their business model works.
The idea is to make it as easy as possible for someone to switch to Windows, and to make it less desirable for them to leave.
Can Incredimail sue Microsoft for bundling OE with the OS?
Many other similar analogies can be pointed out. Telling Microsoft to remove WMP from windows is not fair IMO. They should have only tried to stop Microsoft's monopolistic practices (like forcing OEM partners to not include third party competative software if any).
That's why it passed Mac OS and is now the second most-used OS in the world.
Just you wait ;-) Linux will get the last laugh.
The truth is, the US goverment should of been doing this along time ago and because they didn't, others with the power like the EU took the law into there own hands.
The real monopoly is not the OS it's self, it's the software and hardware drivers support that locks people in, it's easy for people to say go and use Linux or Apple Mac but the truth is, theres not enough mainstream software for them like there is for Windows, thats the key to there monopoly.
Lets look at it another, say Ford was a monopoly and say they had the rights to 95% of the roads and only there cars could drive on thoes roads, what chance would other companies have of compeating?
The truth is, Microsoft are going to keep getting there chops busted until there market share goes down a lot, the EU is just the start, I expect others like China and maybe even the US goverment to get in on it.
The impression I get is that many around the world have already decided that Linux must take over because it's too risky having one company in control of so much like Microsoft is, more so with where the computer is going in the future, you could say that Microsoft is a victim of there own success and are paying the price for it now and I think it's going to get much worse for Microsoft as Linux is just warming up and they are a lot more kean to adopt it outside of the US.
...
2006 remove "Avalon" from WinLH
2006 remove "Indigo" from WinLH
2006 remove "WinFS" from WinLH
...
I thing PCs will going to back 10 years old... like linux!
...
EU its soooo STUPID!!!
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