Microsoft Sued Over Vista-To-XP Downgrade Fees

[OhioChick]

Suit claims the software maker is profiting from a program that allegedly violates antitrust laws.

By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek
February 13, 2009 02:28 PM


A Los Angeles computer user has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), claiming that fees the software maker and its partners charge for downgrading PCs from Windows Vista to the older XP operating system violate antitrust rules.

Emma Alvarado says in court papers that she was forced to pay $59.25 to downgrade a Vista-based Lenovo system she bought last year to XP. Alvarado claims Microsoft is able to impose such fees because of a lack of competition in the PC market.

"Since the introduction of Vista, Microsoft has effectively eliminated competition in the operating system PC market and created a monopoly position for itself in that market," Alvarado claims in papers filed this week in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

"Microsoft has used its power to coerce OEMs, Internet access providers, and others into agreeing to restrictive and anti-competitive licensing terms for its Windows XP operating system in order to stifle competition in the market," according to Alvarado's complaint. "Microsoft did so in order to maintain, protect, and extend its market power in operating systems software into the next generation of personal computing, to lessen competition, and to enhance its monopoly position," Alvarado claims.

More: http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=214200260

[aquart]

1. Cool.

[MADem]

2. I wish her luck, but those vipers at Microsoft will probably keep her in court for years.

I hope she's getting some help that will stick with her.

[MrModerate]

3. If Apple would make its operating system

--which is as good or better than any Microsoft operating system--available on other companies' hardware, this problem would have gone away years ago.

And I know Apple has done so in the past and then backed away from the practice, but there's no question in my mind that they would still be a computer company, rather than a music download company, if they had kept at it.

[bemildred]

4. Ubuntu is free, and I've heard you can buy PCs already equipped with it now.

But it's really easy to install anyhow, less work than Windoze.

[POAS]

5. I have ubuntu on my PC as a dual boot OS

I like it allot but have not come to rely exclusively on it yet owing to a reliance on several Windows only aps.

It was easy to install but it is not the only Linux based system out there, just the most talked about and currently fashionable one (IMO).

[tomreedtoon]

6. But it's Cursed Linux. Which means...

...you'll spend 2/3 of your time doing the required weekly upgrades, and the other 1/3 trying to find software that will still run after the last week's upgrades.

Why don't people realize that Linux for personal computers is like a model train layout; it's a time-waster that gets nothing done while you toy with it? It would make more sense to reverse-engineer Windows (legal or not), fix its problems, and release it on the Internet for free. Or convince the government to sue Microsoft to MAKE them release the Win XP Pro source code.

[HillWilliam]

7. That is SO not-so

I've been running Linux for ten years now. My partner, who is as un-tech-savvy as they come (he does email and IM) has zero problems. I made the switch from Fedora to Ubuntu about two months ago -- they're about neck and neck. Slick, reliable, stable and everything about it "just works".

With Windoze, I get pushed weekly updates that manages to lose all the work I had open on my desktop. As a software developer for Pocket PC's and Mobile Phones, I find that rude, annoying, and time-wasting. You can't stop that, either. They push it, you HAVE to take it. Microsoft's system of updates SUCKS shit. I may have to put up with M$'s inferior crap at work, but I refuse to allow it in my house. At home, I can have things that work and I don't have to listen to my partner bitch any more that his PC doesn't do this or doesn't do that. His machine "just works" and I can do more important things -- like my own computing.

I spent about half my time at work looking for fixes or workarounds for M$'s problems and bugs. Funny thing, at home with my Linux systems, I never have to. All our software "just works". All the time. Never a hitch. And I do some pretty exotic development for my own personal use on Linux. So don't try to sell the crap that Linux isn't reliable or the updates don't work. That story is flatly, patently untrue.

With Ubuntu, I get my updates, they slide right in and I keep on trucking. Zero problems. ALL my software still works and ALL of my work gets saved. And I don't have to reboot EVER without a warning and IF I do (and it's extremely rare) I don't have to until *I'M* ready to. Windows updates force an reboot every week, whether or not you have work open on the desktop. Just night before last I lost an entire DotNet project in the middle of development while I was working on it -- I didn't even get a fucking chance or question "Do you want to save?". The fucking machine just started shutting down.

Pissed? Betcherass. I'm working against the clock doing a large cemetery-inventory project for a historical society on a volunteer basis; they've cataloged some nearly 2000 previously undiscovered and uninventoried cemeteries from the 1700's on in NC, GA, SC, and TN. Today, I'll be recovering the work and trying to go forward. If I could have done this in Eclipse, I would have, but the specs called for Dot Net.

If you're going to diss something, get your facts straight. I can talk because I live in both worlds day in and day out.

[bemildred]

8. Well said.

Unix/Linux can have their issues, but you don't waste 20% of the time dicking with them once you get things figured out.

[tomreedtoon]

9. I know whereof I speak.

I see people lusting after the latest Linux upgrade. Then they go looking for a version of their homebrew word proc that will work with the latest upgrade. By the time they find that, another week has lapsed, and it's time for the next upgrade to the Linux kernel, and the whole mess starts again.

Sorry, I don't want to play with a computer. I want to WORK with it. With software that I can actually buy (or not) and keep using without worrying about it.

And before you say "servers use Linux," yes, but installing the weekly upgrades to it is the job of IT people, who need that planned obsolescence to keep their jobs. Civilians don't need that crap. Unless they like to think they're as "smart" as IT people.

I still insist, getting Windows out of Microsoft's hands, fixing it, and making it publicly available would be better than the drug-dealer business of Linux and its pushers selling us each weekly dose.

[HillWilliam]

10. Again, nonsense

Open Office has been deployed on Windows and Linux alike for several years now. I've been using it for several years now. I interchange documents all the time and nobody is the wiser, whether they be text, spreadsheets, or powerpoint-type documents. They all work the same. I have every feature that Word does except for the nasty habit of losing my documents or screwing with the formatting. I can use VBA in my Open Office spreadsheets just like I do in my Excel worksheets.

No, you don't know whereof you speak.

I develop day-in and day-out for both Windows and Linux. I also run my farm and my wedding business on Linux. I don't "play" with my computers. I don't have time. I work with my machines because that's all I have time for. And they damnwell better work the first time every time.

I cannot and I know better than to count on that with Windows. Weekly bad experience with Windows updates, getting burned over and over and over lets me know better than to EVER count on Windows. Wednesday or Thursday comes the automatic updates and forced reboots. Thursday through Monday comes the company-wide exercise of putting out fires caused by them. Since I double as admin, guess who wastes development time putting out those fires. Moi! I never have to deal with that shit with Linux, yet we have two Linux servers at work that check for updates nightly -- and most nights get them. Never a blip. They just run. So do my Linux desktops on those machines.

Funny idnit.

What I do count on with Windows is the reliability of losing work. Reliably. If the company I work for in my day-job could develop for the Symbol/Motorola platform on anything BUT Windows, we'd be there in a heartbeat. Trust me, the comes that day and we will. We've lost more man-days just this year because of the vagaries of Microsoft than due to any other cause.

It's clear you haven't observed the Linux update procedures in over ten years. It's now smoother, more reliable, much more hands-off than the shit that Microsoft tries to pass off. Almost weekly, Microsoft pushes down a load of updates that forces a system reboot without your permission -- and you can't turn it off without refusing updates entirely. G'd help you if you are working on something at the moment or you happen to leave work open. It's fucking gone. With either Fedora or Ubuntu, my updates are downloaded in the background, I'm asked if I want to apply them at my convenience and that's usually the end of it. In the extremely rare case that a reboot is recommended (twice since I've installed Ubuntu, vs weekly for Windoze), it politely asks me and I can save my work. At MY convenience and command, not Redmond's.

So, no, you don't know whereof you speak. You're pushing a load of uninformed opinion.

[4lbs]

11. The various Linux flavors are Microsoft's main argument against any possible antitrust suits.

Especially since they are free to DL and install.