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#1 2004-01-12 11:54 pm
- jkahless
- Member

- From: Right in front of you.
- Registered: 2002-01-05
- Posts: 10018
Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
Apparently, Microsoft is pro choice. And they have your well being in mind.
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/top_news … ewsID=7643
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#2 2004-01-12 11:59 pm
- NAG
- A witch!
- Royal Wombat

- From: /usr/local/apps/nag
- Registered: 2000-09-22
- Posts: 30229
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
Oh by the way, MacRumors says that their sources say the WMA move for the iPod is extremely unlikely.
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#3 2004-01-13 12:06 am
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
Pro choice, eh?
The WMA thing scares me.
Vastly superior? Puh-leeze.
Spirit was crushed; now is fading, But I want to help make things right.
Because I can see and I can feel, and you can see and you can feel
So why don't we both either stand up and fight
Or at least together we'll call it a night.
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#4 2004-01-13 12:14 am
- Twisted Guy
- President of the Galactic Confederacy

- Registered: 1999-03-28
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Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
Microsoft is pro-choice as long as you choose Microsoft. The rest of the time, they just want to crush you.
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#5 2004-01-13 12:39 am
- HackerJax
- Previous Poster

- From: *unknown*
- Registered: 2002-07-13
- Posts: 4871
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
Seems to me if iTMS and the iPod become the standard, then other manufacturers will support both. Thats a logical conclusion.
Of course that level of success will depend on apple being very open to developers who might want to interface with iTMS and device manufacturers. Time will tell.
As for MS I wouldn't expect any less from them on this issue. They make competing software and this is a market they want. Expect the smurf to get deeper as time goes on.
-=Jax=-

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#6 2004-01-13 12:41 am
- Gilder
- Member
- Registered: 2003-02-28
- Posts: 767
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
Oh, and also, iTunes for Windows will never catch on.
These guys are just scared of the competiton and/or jealous.
I find it funny how the Dellpod was never mentioned, although Dell was bashing this move.
The rest of the article is funny to me too.
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#7 2004-01-13 12:55 am
- Egress
- Connoisseur of Eyebrows

- From: Rockville, Maryland, USA
- Registered: 2000-02-05
- Posts: 5049
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
MS needs to learn to STFU.
The best was when they complained about Asian countries developing a version of Linux. It's called "healthy competition". Not that MS would know about that.
Somebody should make a great big pacifier to put in that whiny baby's mouth.
Hey!!! Was that Pithy? Got a twenty?
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#8 2004-01-13 1:05 am
- HackerJax
- Previous Poster

- From: *unknown*
- Registered: 2002-07-13
- Posts: 4871
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
MS needs to learn to STFU.
I think I'm gonna have to agree with you on this one.
What I find interesting is that while MS can sling the mud about both the iPod and iTMS anyone notice they aren't exactly offering a competing service or anything ?
I say put up or shut up. If MS has a music service to launch and they want to compete, then right on. If not running the mouth isn't going to really convince anyone of anything.
-=Jax=-

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#9 2004-01-13 1:20 am
- Denibriliny
- Banned
- Registered: 2001-05-07
- Posts: 878
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
Microsoft is pro-choice as long as you choose Microsoft. The rest of the time, they just want to crush you.
I have no idea what the hell you're talking about.
On the school playground, two kids in kindergarten were arguing about something, and one of them started crying. A teacher comes up to them and asks what is wrong. The kid who is crying points to the other kid and goes "he insulted my operating system!"
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#10 2004-01-13 5:38 am
- Stop the Robots
- I'm Jesus

- From: Michigan
- Registered: 2002-12-01
- Posts: 6727
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
"The company will be working with Apple to add support for Microsoft's superior Windows Media Audio (WMA) format to the iPod by mid-year."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
AHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
Aha....
ha
erm, *cough*
Yes.

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#11 2004-01-13 8:19 am
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
Microsoft is pro-choice as long as you choose Microsoft. The rest of the time, they just want to crush you.
I have no idea what the hell you're talking about.
SImply put, MS's strategy has been: wait until somebody else comes out with something, then develop a competing thing, but use a different standard. Then use it's overwhelming market domenance to force that on everybody. For example, MS for several years did not develop a browser, Gates did not think the internet would be a big thing. When it became obvious that the net was taking off, MS then developed IE. But they used different standards, rather than standard html standards.
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#12 2004-01-13 9:03 am
- Enos Shenk
- Member
- From: /dev/null
- Registered: 2003-01-30
- Posts: 415
- Website
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
He told journalists at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas: "Windows is about choice - you can mix and match software and music player stuff.
Netscape 13.74% - MSIE 85.02% - Other 1.22%

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#13 2004-01-13 9:18 am
- jgcampos
- Member

- Registered: 2000-05-05
- Posts: 6684
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
MS needs to learn to STFU.
The best was when they complained about Asian countries developing a version of Linux. It's called "healthy competition". Not that MS would know about that.
Somebody should make a great big pacifier to put in that whiny baby's mouth.
assuming that by "mouth", you're referring to the end they are making all those stupid noise on, right?
which end again is the pacifier supposed to go in?

I know your IP.
A gift without a giver is not a gift.
"Intel Inside" is not a marketing ploy, it's a warning label.
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#14 2004-01-13 9:20 am
- cocoamix
- Member

- Registered: 2001-03-01
- Posts: 7471
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
HP made a choice too.
NO WMA. For now, anyway.
Jingoism - Extreme and emotional nationalism, or chauvinism, often characterized by an aggressive foreign policy, accompanied by an eagerness to wage war.
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#15 2004-01-13 9:52 am
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
A report in Connected Home Magazine has suggested that HP's deal with Apple will have one other side effect: "The company will be working with Apple to add support for Microsoft's superior Windows Media Audio (WMA) format to the iPod by mid-year."
They probably mean by volume, not quality. After all, by that logic, earthworms are superior to all other biomass on this planet. More advanced? No, just superior in volume.
I don't think that anyone that has ever used a lightbulb would call WMA superior over MP3/4.
-Tima likes his real standards.
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#16 2004-01-13 1:20 pm
- Asystole
- Member
- From: CNY
- Registered: 2003-12-25
- Posts: 743
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
CHOICES? WHAT BLOODY CHOICES? Microsoft ships a media player, web browser, pop/smtp mail client, online service, and instant messaging app with it's operating system. Unlike OSX, you can't even completely remove the browser or messaging client.
Microsoft can go fornicate themselves with a pike pole.
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#17 2004-01-13 1:27 pm
- NAG
- A witch!
- Royal Wombat

- From: /usr/local/apps/nag
- Registered: 2000-09-22
- Posts: 30229
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
MS needs to learn to STFU.
I think I'm gonna have to agree with you on this one.
What I find interesting is that while MS can sling the mud about both the iPod and iTMS anyone notice they aren't exactly offering a competing service or anything ?
I say put up or shut up. If MS has a music service to launch and they want to compete, then right on. If not running the mouth isn't going to really convince anyone of anything.
-=Jax=-
Indeed. They are only doing themselves more harm than good by bringing this up with no viable alternatives.
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#18 2004-01-13 1:31 pm
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
How's it feel, Microsoft? It's a little uncomfortable to be forced out of a market, isn't it?
"Overall, the results are pretty clear: Mac users might not actually be smarter than PC users, but they certainly use better English and a larger vocabulary to express more complex thinking."
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#19 2004-01-13 1:53 pm
- i think G4 imac
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- Website
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
microsoft: this is called the fair business practices road to monopoly (or very high marketshare in the tunes biz), learn from it.
"I'm 430 pounds of internet fury. When I die Pepsi/Frito-Lay stock will drop a point."
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#20 2004-01-13 2:05 pm
- LuckyJ
- Member
- From: Winona Lake, IN
- Registered: 2004-01-05
- Posts: 313
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
Right now Microscrew executives are probably busy planning THEIR music service to be released to compete with iTMS. The plan?
They'll likely have an ENTIRELY too busy interface that is frustrating as heck to work with. Everything will be in *shudder* WMA format and designed to allow ONLY one or maybe two burns per song to try and please the RIAA. Then, they'll only charge 60 cents per song to try and drive iTMS out of business. They'll lose millions in the process but eventually (they assume) iTunes will be run out of business and then they can own the monopoly once again.
Same old, same old from good ole microscrew. No innovation. Just stealing everyone else's ideas and making them cheaper just long enough to crush to competition. They've lost millions on the XBox, lost millions on IE and will probably do the same with their music store in an attempt to be the supreme rulers of your digital lifestyle, if you can call anything MS would provide by such a nice name.
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#21 2004-01-13 2:11 pm
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
As long as everyone here is optimistic...
-tima fears for the future.
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#22 2004-01-13 3:16 pm
- niggs6_1
- Member
- Registered: 2002-07-25
- Posts: 224
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
I hope they include their music service, if one, with Windows so they can look like a bunch of hypocrites. Besides, HP isn't forcing you to use iTMS, they're just providing easy access (can't think of a better way to put it). Microsoft's thinking is highly illogical.
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#23 2004-01-13 3:30 pm
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
They said nothing about MSN when AOL started to come pre-packed with OEM companies...
or did they?
-tima is unsure.
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#24 2004-01-13 3:38 pm
- mtpalms
- plz stand by

- From: Telstar
- Registered: 2002-09-16
- Posts: 4534
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
How's it feel, Microsoft? It's a little uncomfortable to be forced out of a market, isn't it?
The HP / Apple iPod deal is a direct result of the courts forcing MS to release it's stranglehold on what a PC company can and cannot bundle with Windows.
I am sure that when Apple released the Windows version of iTunes, they had MS's blessing, they had to have. I am also sure that they realized that deals like the HP ipod w/ itunes bundled with HP computers were bound to happen and I figure they blessed that too in the name of staving off future - and fighting current - lawsuits.
MS's moaning about this is just grandstanding, [sarcasm]because everyone knows that Apple is just such a HUGE thorn their side[/sarcasm] , and it wouldn't look good for them to keep silent about it.
Everyone has to keep the 800lb gorilla appeased.
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#25 2004-01-13 5:10 pm
- BostonPops
- Member
- Registered: 2002-02-05
- Posts: 168
- Website
Re: Oh horrors! MS and Choices.
Microsoft is pro-choice as long as you choose Microsoft. The rest of the time, they just want to crush you.
I have no idea what the hell you're talking about.
SImply put, MS's strategy has been: wait until somebody else comes out with something, then develop a competing thing, but use a different standard. Then use it's overwhelming market domenance to force that on everybody. For example, MS for several years did not develop a browser, Gates did not think the internet would be a big thing. When it became obvious that the net was taking off, MS then developed IE. But they used different standards, rather than standard html standards.
That is what chaps my butt about M$. They let other people invent the system and standards and then they pee all over them with their implementation.
IIS = httpd, only different
AD = LDAP, only different
Exchange = smtpd, only different
ActiveX = Java, only different
IE = html, only different
WINS = dhcp, only different
Netbios/Netbui = TCP/IP, only different
C# = hell, I don't know what they were thinking with this one
My PC-using friend laughs at me when Safari doesn't render a page correctly then I show him that any other browser on Windows besides IE renders the page the same way as Safari on OS X. I then explain how IE doesn't follow the html standards and he looks at me in bewilderment. Agreed upon protocols and standards mean nothing in the M$ world.
Q: What's small and white with an apple on top of it?<BR>A: William Tell's son.
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