Toolkit

Story: Microsoft awaits punitive EU judgment

Posted by: symon (Thursday 18 March 2004, 9:09 PM)

I have a few points, some maybe valid, some may get flamed straight away as being stupid...

1. If the source code was forced to be released for all and sundry to be able to make better integrating media player programs wouldnt this also make it easier for hackers to break in to your system?

2. If WMP wasnt bundled with Windows would we have to pay MS even more money to have the same as what we have now? ie £xxx.00 for Windows PLUS £xx.00 for WMP as opposed to the one price for the bundled lot? Or would people be able to download it for free from MS update site... if the latter it wouldnt make any difference IMHO to competition as for the others you have to pay something for the use. So either MS make more money for supplying same package but in 2 boxes or the other media players have to go completely free to be of any competitive force.

3. I personally would still use WMP as I still use MS IE instead of Netscape. It all integrates well...... which takes me back to point 1... if the source code was released to others so their programs to integrate as well, there would be serious security issues.

4. Wouldnt something like the source code be protected as intellectual property like the formulation for Pepsi for instance? Can't see the secret formula for Pepsi being badied around all over to be copied by all and sundry.. If it was, would Pepsi still be a market force?

OK, I may have the wrong end of the stick completely but I'm not a programmer / IT type guy. I'm just a person that USES the software and likes it the way it is now.

Flames start on the next page? ;)