Windows 7 in EU without Browser!

[saahne]

Originally Posted by mmarif4u

Read reason 6, some thing very funny. Recover from craches...haha

The really funny stuff is under the browser comparison and mythbusting tabs, especially the latter.

[JopSway]

Originally Posted by Chrysantine

Lovely, the quote tag was broken there and now I can't fix it because I can't edit here at all.

Fixed it for you so it can be read easily.

Sigh, I wonder why I bother to post here in the first place - guess I'll go and post elsewhere in the future.

Just for one silly bracket?

[consused]

Originally Posted by saahne

I was going to say none whatsoever but their marketing is comically great.

Marketing is easier when you (a) dominate the market; and (b) are preaching to the converted.

[saahne]

Originally Posted by consused

Marketing is easier when you (a) dominate the market; and (b) are preaching to the converted.

I think it is comical because it misses the potential audience. The sort of the person they are targeting with their "Facts" site is probably someone who might be using a different browser, the sort of person who isn't totally clueless or converted to MS. Anyone in that category is unlikely to be persuaded.

Also, a fascinating video form the people at Google: What is a browser?. This is why IE as the default on new Windows installs is a problem. Your average user has no clue. They'll just use whatever they are given. They don't even know what the product is or even that there is a product.

[fbsduser]

Originally Posted by TimButterworth

Why though someone has not started a desktop computer company specializing in selling systems designed to work with and preloaded with Linux I will never understand. As this would be the company that gets my business.

There are such companies already.
One is System76
others are "Linux Certified", ZaReason and Dell.

> There are such companies already.

and IBM (http://www.ibm.com/linux/)

--
.~.
/V\
/( )\ natural_pilot
^^-^^

[Confuseling]

Originally Posted by zak89

Heh heh. Consistency is a rare jewel, rare indeed...

I think that pulling the browser from the OS is a fine idea. Like kastorff's excellent analogy, making MS act as free advertising for their own competition is a joke. Not a very funny one, but that's about as good as the EU gets for humor these days.

If they really think that bundling a browser is anticompetitive (after all, OS X and most Linux distros don't come bundled with a web browser, right?) than leave out the browser. Simple. This "ballot" nonsense is laughable; can some point to any other industry where you are forced to offer you competitor's products? Why here?

The thing is that computers blur the boundary between tool and information vector. They update, enhance and reconfigure themselves. A modern car might announce "I need new tyres!" to you. If it were made by Audi, and said "I need new tyres! Audi make very good tyres. There's an Audi garage just 2 miles over there..." we might have an issue.

Here in the UK the BBC advertise Radio Times, their TV/radio listings magazine, with the tagline "Other listings magazines are available", apparently because many people found that difficult to figure out. I suppose it's similar to the reasoning behind making state television networks give a fixed proportion of airtime to opposition parties - you just can't have one interest controlling the transmission and the content, because the hapless masses will vote for whoever seems prominent.

It seems that in our consumerist paradise, people need these little nudges, or they forget to consume different things...

[Confuseling]

Originally Posted by saahne

I think it is comical because it misses the potential audience. The sort of the person they are targeting with their "Facts" site is probably someone who might be using a different browser, the sort of person who isn't totally clueless or converted to MS. Anyone in that category is unlikely to be persuaded. ...

I really doubt that's true. I suspect they're targeting their base, trying to drum in the message "It's safer/better where you are... We're popular for a reason... It's too much hassle to try something new..."

If they have any sense, they're working on the assumption that most of the people who try other things are lost already; because here, as in many other areas, they simply don't make very good software.

[consused]

Originally Posted by saahne

I think it is comical because it misses the potential audience. The sort of the person they are targeting with their "Facts" site is probably someone who might be using a different browser, the sort of person who isn't totally clueless or converted to MS. Anyone in that category is unlikely to be persuaded.

Ok, but I think they are targeting users of Windows (so my posted (a) + (b) applies), to sure up those who run IE exclusively, but essentially to get back the millions who moved to Firefox and those moving onto Chrome. You can see that, in the comparison on the second tab of the "Facts" link. Many not so clued-up "followed the herd" to FF, to avoid the malware hits on IE and to use a lighter (in the beginning) and faster browser.

Also, a fascinating video form the people at Google: What is a browser?. This is why IE as the default on new Windows installs is a problem. Your average user has no clue. They'll just use whatever they are given. They don't even know what the product is or even that there is a product.

I agree with this. It represents a large sector of the Windows dominated market.

[daKump]

Originally Posted by TimButterworth

Would Opera per say launch an anti-trust anti-competition suite against KDE for including Konqueror or against the major Linux distro's for including Firefox and having it selected for installation by default? Would other companies begin to follow suite and try to tear away at the GNU/LINUX ecosystem to get there products included possibly with a royalty.

KDE is a Desktop Enviroment and not an operating system. Opera and updates for Opera are mostly treated equal to other browsers on commercial GNU/Linux systems since they are available through the package manager.
The big and most impotant advantage of the IE is the windows update.
I think Opera wanted Microsoft to open the windows update for third patrty application so that there are equal circumstances but instead of this MS prefered to remove to IE for not being forced to open the windows update.
In my oppinion the whole thing is not about standard compliance or market share on the home user desktop market. Opera does not sale their browser, they are selling support contracts. If you take a look on any companies computers in the EU you will never find any other browser than the IE because it's the only one that is supported by the windows update. Opera was right to suit but it seems that the result does not really help them