Microsoft vs Europe = ?

[Garp]

Microsoft pwned again:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7266629.stm
and recipients of another large fine, though to be fair they have started opening up their APIs and formats (which serves them too, their closed and internal APIs have long been known to perform better than the main ones)

[Mark]

Pwned? Doesn't seem like a good choice of words tbh.

More like the EU Commission treating them as a cash cow. I expect Google will be next.

[Garp]

I wouldn't say that. MS were warned not to be so anti-competitive, failed to do so in the time scales they were required to, thus they get fined as was promised.

[Toby]

I've never quite understood the deal with IE, WMP etc. Other companies complaining about MS destroying their market by bundling an alternative with Windows smacks a bit of sour grapes tbh. If their products were good enough, they'd succeed despite this. Remember it works the other way around, Google having done the same to MS with Google Maps vs Autoroute.

What I do think MS are totally guilty of, and seems to be the main issue in this judgement, is withholding vital pieces of information about their APIs from competitors, thus giving their application programmers a clear advantage over third party developers, especially with new versions of Windows such as Vista. When MS has a near monopoly on the desktop OS and third parties have no viable alternative platform to develop for, this advantage is obviously unfair.

[killerkebab]

Isn't the main deal the use of a monopoly in one field to gain one in another? In that case I think the case is pretty clear, and I don't think it is about a cash cow (though it would be the most obvious target) nor a case of MS making things better than everybody else and thus they're the ones in a monopoly. That said, I don't know anything about the technical side of this so I could be (and probably am) talking out of my arse here

Anyone care to explain what an API is and why it is crucially important to software development for common programs such as web browsers and media players?

[Garp]

Originally Posted by killerkebab

Anyone care to explain what an API is and why it is crucially important to software development for common programs such as web browsers and media players?

Application Program Interface. How a programmer interacts with the operating system to do almost everything from gaining access to system resources to drawing the UI. DirectX is essentially just an API, providing a nice simple way for programmers to control the graphics card. There are multiple APIs for Windows that are for different purposes. Previously, depending on your level of MSDN subscription, you'd get access to certain ones. Some of the better performing APIs were at a higher licence cost, and some are for internal microsoft use only (at one stage Office was rumoured to use a particular optimised one of those, presenting it with an unfair speed advantage over other software manufacturers code)

[Daz]

MAPI is a good example. Very efficient for controlling outlook/exchange, but you cant really get your hands on it.