{"id":302,"date":"2005-01-25T14:14:47","date_gmt":"2005-01-25T14:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jcm.org.uk\/blog\/2005\/01\/25\/eu-1-0-bill-gates\/"},"modified":"2005-01-25T14:14:47","modified_gmt":"2005-01-25T14:14:47","slug":"eu-1-0-bill-gates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/2005\/01\/eu-1-0-bill-gates\/","title":{"rendered":"EU 1 – 0 Bill Gates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looks like Microsoft has backed down<\/a> in is attempts to claim that it doesn’t hold a monopoly on PC software, which goes against various EU regulations. A Microsoft spokesman has apparently agreed<\/a> that “Rather than seeking to suspend the Commission’s remedies, Microsoft’s focus now is on working constructively with the Commission on their full and prompt implementation”.<\/p>\n

In other words, Gates’ massive company is going to have to release details of the Windows code to competitors to enable them to better produce compatible products, as well as release a pared down version. This will be available “in the coming weeks”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The basic complaint was that the bundling of MediaPlayer with Windows (a key part of Microsoft’s strategy according to this interview with Gates<\/a>) is buggering up Quicktime and RealPlayer’s attempts to compete. Speaking as someone who has to use a Mac at work, it sounds fair enough, as .wmv files seem incapable of playing on my machine. then again, this could just be because I know nothing about technology…<\/p>\n

Either way, monopolies are annoying. Especially when the product is so riddled with problems as much of Microsoft’s stuff is. What happened to Acorn<\/a>, eh? They were always good… But then again, I do love my xbox. Hmmm…<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, to remind everyone what a nice chap he is, Bill gates has announced he is going to donate \u00ef\u00bf\u00bd400 million for child vaccines in the third world<\/a>, and has praised Gordon Brown and Tony Blair for their efforts to promote the cause:<\/p>\n

“I have spoken with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown about their commitment and I am very excited about the leadership they are bringing.<\/p>\n

\u00ef\u00bf\u00bdThe Prime Minister has talked about Africa as one of his big priorities and I think it is pretty novel that a world leader of a developed country is giving so much visibility to these issues.<\/p>\n

\u00ef\u00bf\u00bdThe idea that governments could do a pretty dramatic step-up in their health spending is something I am very excited about.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bill Gates owns in the region of $29.5 billion<\/a> of Microsoft shares, so that makes his pledge about 3% of his approximate worth. I could point out that he could probably manage a tad more (I mean, who needs THAT much money?), but that would just be petty…<\/p>\n

By the way, today is my birthday and I want praise. Offers of money to the usual address… Or vote for this blog<\/a> – it’s currently losing out to Ceteris Paribus<\/a>, Versac<\/a> and Crooked Timber<\/a> in the Best Political Weblog category, and to Perfect.co.uk<\/a> in the Best UK Blog one. Which is probably fair enough – BUT IT’S MY BIRTHDAY, DAMN IT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looks like Microsoft has backed down in is attempts to claim that it doesn’t hold a monopoly on PC software, which goes against various EU regulations. A Microsoft spokesman has apparently agreed that “Rather than seeking to suspend the Commission’s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}