Microsoft was punished for pumping a market with a free product, with its development supported by revenues from a monopoly product, so that they could afford to give it away where competitors could not. If Google offers something for free, kills off its competitors who were charging for their version, and then starts charging when they're the only ones left, then the French court has a point.
Even the headline in the linked article is absurd: "French court protectionis
Punished? You call that punishment? I'm not saying google is innocent at all, I'm just saying the big fat bastards at Microsoft weren't punished in a meaningful way. And, for the record, I have installed 5 windows machines and have never seen the "browser ballot". Nor did I see it in existing machines.
This was predicted to happen two years ago (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would it?
Microsoft was punished for pumping a market with a free product, with its development supported by revenues from a monopoly product, so that they could afford to give it away where competitors could not. If Google offers something for free, kills off its competitors who were charging for their version, and then starts charging when they're the only ones left, then the French court has a point.
Even the headline in the linked article is absurd: "French court protectionis
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I saw the "browser ballot" last time I installed a Windows 7 copy.
BUT, it came after many updates from Windows Update (it was non SP1 install media), and it opens in IE9.
Re:This was predicted to happen two years ago (Score:2)