The cost of success?

[Daniel]

Ever wondered what the cost of success is?

Well it's £680.9 million :mark:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7266629.stm

Lucky pity F1 isn't run like this. Ferrari would have been the one getting fined for not sharing information with it's rivals last year :)

Well the EU had to get money from somewhere I guess :dozey:

[Brown, Jon Brow]

£680.9million = weight of Bill Gates Sunday joint!

However I do agree that its unfair that businesses' get fined for being successful.

[Daniel]

£680.9million = weight of Bill Gates Sunday joint!

However I do agree that its unfair that businesses' get fined for being successful.

Yeah I doubt it's going to make much difference to him.

Does Bill look bothered? :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5WIEep8DJg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbysP-9AryQ

[Mp3 Astra]

There are two sides to this, of which I'm sure you'll understand. Yes, it does look unfair that a company is getting fined because it is successful, but the people who order a company to open up some of their codes in order to allow smaller companies to make compatible and working products.

Do we want Microsoft to have a complete monopoly? Maybe it would be good because we'd all have one standard of software and hardware, but it would allow them to do whatever they want, for whatever price. Already, we have seen pretty outrageous prices for Microsoft products, and what can we expect if the competition keeps getting pushed back? More of the same.

That's what business watchdogs are for - keeping us from going completely broke from ridiculous software and hardware prices. It's the same for every kind of market.

I don't really know what good it does to fine a company an amount that is 0.3% of their gross wealth, but I guess it's a start...

[Daniel]

There are two sides to this, of which I'm sure you'll understand. Yes, it does look unfair that a company is getting fined because it is successful, but the people who order a company to open up some of their codes in order to allow smaller companies to make compatible and working products.

Do we want Microsoft to have a complete monopoly? Maybe it would be good because we'd all have one standard of software and hardware, but it would allow them to do whatever they want, for whatever price. Already, we have seen pretty outrageous prices for Microsoft products, and what can we expect if the competition keeps getting pushed back? More of the same.

That's what business watchdogs are for - keeping us from going completely broke from ridiculous software and hardware prices. It's the same for every kind of market.

I don't really know what good it does to fine a company an amount that is 0.3% of their gross wealth, but I guess it's a start...
True. But at the end of the day if you want to get things like OpenOffice, RealPlayer, iTunes and so on there's no one stopping you. This "opening" up of Windows is one of the things that makes it less secure. Before Vista came out Microsoft had to loosen (LOOSEN FFS!!!!) it's built in security measures so that existing AV companies could work with Vista which meant that Vista is now less secure without AV software than it otherwise would be.

On one hand it's OK for companies like Adobe to hold grudges and not fix flash on IE7 just because Microsoft wants to compete with Acrobat but it's not OK for Microsoft to make their own OS secure. Absolute rubbish!!!!!

What annoys me so much is that Apple is allowed to have a closed system in their PC's, phones and so on but Microsoft is penalised for having a far more open system.

Vista costs £60 quid for Home Premium which I think is perfectly reasonable. When I built my PC recently I had the choice of all sorts of different motherboards, CPU's, graphics cards, cases, power supplies and so on. With a Mac you accept what you're given or you don't have a Mac.

As for competition. Hmmmm I fail to see the huge revenue stream that a company would get for something that's being given away for free. Sure there's advertising. But one day there'll come a point where people either block adverts or simply don't give a **** about them and the online advertising industry goes back to where it was 10 years ago.

[Drew]

Now, what is the EU gonna do with all that money?!

I propose an 8 lane motorway from the UK to Sweden.

[Camelopard]

I just don't understand why people pay for an operating system when things like Ubuntu are free. It does everything that most people would need, it is constantly being updated and as a bonus you are not paying for bill gates' house!

[BDunnell]

Now, what is the EU gonna do with all that money?!

Fund the probe into MEPs' expenses?

Sorry, no, that's just a ridiculous idea on my part.

[Camelopard]

Fund the probe into MEPs' expenses?

Sorry, no, that's just a ridiculous idea on my part.

Pay for the added security that is going to be needed in Kosovo and Serbia?

[Drew]

Fund the probe into MEPs' expenses?

Sorry, no, that's just a ridiculous idea on my part.

Ha!

I say a nice summer location for the MEPs. How about a nice little summer parliament down in Malta, for example?

[J4MIE]

You are presuming of course that Microsoft will eventually pay the fine...

I agree with Daniel, and think it's rediculous :down:

[Garry Walker]

Stupid. Typical of EU.
Someone should put this stupid organization out of its misery and terminate it.