Embattled software giant Microsoft has today announced a resolution with the European Union on the name of a new copy of Windows XP. After being found guilty by a court in 2004 of breaking EU monopoly law, the company is being forced to sell a stripped down version of Windows XP without Media player components.
Microsoft will sell the stripped down version of Windows XP in Europe as "Windows XP Home Edition N". Previous announcements had suggested names such as "Windows XP reduced Media Edition", yet these proved unpopular with the EU regulators who believed the name would be unattractive to consumers. Microsoft’s most recent decision represents a small victory for the EU who has had difficultly enforcing its judgments on the company.
Microsoft has yet to comply with another part of the EU judgment which stipulates that the company must open up access to server protocols. Negotiations have stumbled over terms of the license which was prohibitive to open source software makers. Microsoft are also in disagreement with EU over plans to appoint a trustee to monitor Microsoft's compliance, or lack there of. If Microsoft fails to comply with the Commission’s decisions, they could face fines of up to $5 million per day.
Horacio Gutierrez, a lawyer for Microsoft, told Reuters that the company has "some misgivings about the chosen name, as we fear it may cause confusion for consumers about the product, but we will adopt the Commission's name in order to move forward and accelerate the pace of the implementation process." Gutierrez said the new version would be available to European consumers within a "matter of weeks".
Microsoft faced a similar situation with the US DoJ in the late nineties. However, with deep pockets and large settlements the company's rivals are less vocal and of a smaller number. The problem Microsoft faces with the EU is that it is unable to "bargain its way out of settlement", as some critics have suggested the company did in the USA. With no clout over the European Commission, the company faces a serious problem: it might just have to comply.
View: Microsoft.com
Microsoft will sell the stripped down version of Windows XP in Europe as "Windows XP Home Edition N". Previous announcements had suggested names such as "Windows XP reduced Media Edition", yet these proved unpopular with the EU regulators who believed the name would be unattractive to consumers. Microsoft’s most recent decision represents a small victory for the EU who has had difficultly enforcing its judgments on the company.
Microsoft has yet to comply with another part of the EU judgment which stipulates that the company must open up access to server protocols. Negotiations have stumbled over terms of the license which was prohibitive to open source software makers. Microsoft are also in disagreement with EU over plans to appoint a trustee to monitor Microsoft's compliance, or lack there of. If Microsoft fails to comply with the Commission’s decisions, they could face fines of up to $5 million per day.
Horacio Gutierrez, a lawyer for Microsoft, told Reuters that the company has "some misgivings about the chosen name, as we fear it may cause confusion for consumers about the product, but we will adopt the Commission's name in order to move forward and accelerate the pace of the implementation process." Gutierrez said the new version would be available to European consumers within a "matter of weeks".
Microsoft faced a similar situation with the US DoJ in the late nineties. However, with deep pockets and large settlements the company's rivals are less vocal and of a smaller number. The problem Microsoft faces with the EU is that it is unable to "bargain its way out of settlement", as some critics have suggested the company did in the USA. With no clout over the European Commission, the company faces a serious problem: it might just have to comply.
This second generation of Cinema Displays comes in three sizes (20-Inch, 23-Inch, and the 30-Inch model), and have extra features like dual Firewire & dual USB 2.0 ports. As you might expect, like everything else made by Apple, Cinema Displays aren’t the cheapest thing on the market ($1,299 and up). With Apple’s reputation as a quality vendor, one might reasonably expect a decent deal. Especially when you spend over $1,000 dollars, you’d expect to get an honest and fair warranty. However, with this new generation of Cinema Displays, Apple only offers a 1-year manufacturer warranty. Has Apple screwed over it’s so called valuable customers with a warranty best fitting a Gateway product?! We think so. If one was so inclined, one can purchase an extended warranty for around $199, giving you a 3-year extended warranty. But there’s a catch. In order to get the extended warranty, you must purchase either a PowerMac or PowerBook along side of your $1,299+ LCD; unless you're planning on doing just this, you'll be up a creek without the proverbial paddle.
So come on guys, we hear you cry. Be reasonable. How is this a major issue? Well, consumers shouldn’t have to spend an extra $1,200 just to get an extended warranty on a product that so far hasn't had the smoothest sailing. It becomes even more of a problem considering the other, more visible, problems.
Our second concern is the growing number of faulty Cinema Displays. Website’s across the internet have been reporting on Cinema Displays that show either a strong pink or fairly visible yellow hue. Clearly, this isn't the first time that the "pink hue" symptoms have occurred - they first occurred in Apple's PowerBook G3 link (click here). This problem had previously been noticed by graphic professionals, but the more serious pink/yellow hues can be seen by your average computer user. Apple has yet to make an official statement regarding this problem, but has replaced all Cinema Displays that are experiencing this problem. More worryingly, the company has been reported as deleting support threads on their site (click here, DreamLight.com is currently down please click here to view a cached version of the site). This, however, obviously isn't a long term fix. According to DreamLight, the pink/yellow hue comes back after only a few weeks of normal usage. DreamLight suggest from user reports that these problems could be due to unnecessary stress on the LCD.
Of course, this may not be Apple’s fault, but the LCD manufacturer LG. LG produces a wide variety of products ranging from LCD TV's, Cameras, DVD Players - even Refrigerator's. Still, in the PC world, LG products are often suggested to be anything but high quality with less than average performance. Back in 1999, Apple invested $100 million dollars into Samsung to help Samsung produce a large quantity of LCDs for Apples iBooks, PowerBooks, and Cinema Displays. As such, it’s anyone’s guess why Apple switched from Samsung to LG. Even though Apple doesn’t manufacture the LCDs, Apple has a responsibility to its customers. That responsibility is to offer a fair and honest warranty. Switching back doesn’t sound like too bad idea.

STV
STV, don't you usually write somthing hiddeously offensive in comments like how you hate Europe and such...
STV
Yes it IS true. You'd better do some further reading yourself.
I can and will only comment on the public / technical aspects of this, but : at face value, undeniably, the original comment was wrong and misleading. I respect where people might be coming from, but it's important that the facts are straight.
Unfortunately, I can no longer find that document—so I can't back up my statement with evidence. However, there is a related story from February 6th that would tend to back up my assertion:
http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?action=crf&category=main&cid=333341&id=26973
Damn EU and trying to suck MS's money....
Like someone said before MS should just leave the European market. THEN we'll see how quick EU lifts all these stupid regulations. This is seriously idiodic.....
I have nothing against Europe (i live here!), its people, or anything else but this is idiodic on part of EU. They should think of more important stuff than this crap...
Yea, it boggles my mind too.
I sure hope you don't believe "us europeans" have voted for this specifically to happen.
Even in democratics, some parts of politics just aren't voted for, and in some cases I find it's good since the general public doesn't have enough education in the subject anyway, but in this case it's just annoying to have them decide this and that... I can kind of see the point, but it's definitely executed in the wrong way.
I sometimes wonder if the anti-EU comments are really anti-EU, or anger at the US DoJ for failing. I personally am very happy to see the EU doing this - it's one of the few parts of the EU that seem to be working well and doing a good job.
Exactly. It doesn't matter what action the US takes or does not take, Microsoft broke rules for trading in the EU - hence the action.
I am all for this new version. Let the OEMs/users have the choice on what to install. If I am not mistaken, this is for OEM builders anyhow...
Close. This is for mentally deficient OEMs with a death wish.
With the possible exception of RealNetworks getting into the retail computer business, what sane system builder would purposely screw his own customers by selling an intentionally crippled product?
The fact is that this whole business is a smelly load of politically motivated BS. People have always been able to download and install the media player(s) of their choice. The EU getting a half-billion dollar extortion check from Microsoft doesn't change a damned thing! Certainly the "consumers"—the people that are allegedly "harmed" by Microsoft's "monopoly"—won't see a cent of that money.
But then what do I know? Maybe someone will enlighten me as to exactly how the "consumer" will benefit from this abortion in any way whatsoever.
As far as Octol's comment on the letting OEMs choose what media player to install... With this version, they may elect to install WMP or Real or any other media player - I don't care what brand. It is about choice, not removal of choice.
Plus, I called Magoo "bangbang". I must have been completely not in my right mind when I made that post early this morning.
That was just uncalled for.
BE SPECIFIC!
Explain to me how it is that there are NO viable alternatives to Microsoft products (a monopoly by definition), which means that I have NO choice but to buy Microsoft products and services to the exclusion of all others.
The term monopoly is completely irrelevant - what is is that Microsoft is in violation of EC competition regulations, of which Article 81 and Article 82 of the EC Treaty cover.
Actually, you are the first person to have stated this correctly, if a little bit inflammatorily. <ouch> The 'Monoply' card is indeed being played here, but let's examine it a bit more closely, shall we?
Octol, the sad truth is, the English language is mallable to the extent that each country can, and does, define any given word the way it wants to. They can each
write and publish their own English language dictionary(ies), and there's not a damned thing anyone else can do about it.
That said, the evidence at hand seems to suggest (rather strongly) that when the EU was formed out of whole cloth, yet another edition of the dictionary was devised, and
sprung upon a lot of folks who thought they'd been speaking English correctly for their entire lives. Not so, according to the EU's "newspeak". In point of fact, the aforementioned Articles do seem to go out of their way to pervert the formerly internationally accepted version of how to define the "M" word. Seeing that new definition, one has to admit to being stupified at the obvious intent of these Articles - either to mold the world's business practices to follow the EU's private agenda, or else to extort money from those companies at the forefront of their industries, companies that don't "sing the Party song and dance the Party dance".
Mark my words - Microsoft is just the first big one, there will be others. And that's just plain sad.
So opines
Da Judge
I disagree. Most of the points in Article 81 & 82 are common sense. What I will say is that they are like many laws/regulations - they are quite vague and are open to interpretation by the residing commision.
I don't feel that this is to extort money from market leaders but to ensure that they conform to the regulations that protect competition - Microsoft is one of the obvious examples, as they have acted unfairly in Europe and in the US (hence the legal action). Competition benefits the consumer and it is not helpful for Microsoft to put pressure on OEM's and developers, which is one of the main issues of this action.
although its true, Microsoft can't rename it to make it less attractive than the other versions of XP (it was one of the clauses) its tough naming something that you know is inferior.
Glad I don't live there.
Me "I wanna name my son Timmy"
Doctor "Nope sorry cant allow that"
Me "its my son thought..."
Doctor "well to bad, if you stall on choosing a name for your child that I will agree with Ill charge you $150 a day till you do."
Me "Wth its my child though I should be able to name it what I want"
Doctor "Sorry sir this is is a democracy, we legally can sue you for not naming your child within the guidelines, oh and btw thats $150 right there"
Me "... what do you want its name to be then?"
Doctor "Timmy N"
What's odd, though, is that the EU seems to be encouraging false advertising. Microsoft very clearly wanted to let people know that this version of Windows is not as functional as the standard one.
The EU seems to want to confuse users and make them think this version is somehow "new" or "improved." It's almost like they want to trick users into buying this broken version of Windows.
I hope Microsoft puts some huge red branding on the box that says "Now with 100% less media functionality!!!"
"The first OS compliant with the EU's standards of Screwing Our Customers!!"
"Half the OS for the price of one!"
it's nowher near half the OS.
Oh, and I'm pretty sure it still contains soundrecorder, so it's not "100% less media functionallity" either
As long as the EU doesn't decide to force this version on us, instead of the normal one. We should be allowed a choice surely?
Rubbish - you are allowed to sell fruit and veg in imperial units, but you must also display them in metric. Also, it was already decided by the Wilson government before the UK joined the EEC to commit to metrification - schools are taught exclusively in metric and have been for 30yrs!
Stop just spouting tabloid sensationalist rubbish.
taken from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4388349.stm
Besides wouldn't that have made it "Windows XP NWMP"?
ROFL
but i think microsoft windows xp home 'n'
wierd name
cant they just put somehting nice catchy and simple
no like people gonna say, 'oh yeah i got that home n today'
or
'oh that home n is soo good''
try saying it
'home n'
neuteured