China in MONOPOLY PROBE into Microsoft: Do not pass GO, do not collect 200 yuan

Re: Surprising

Nope, not illegally tied, because there are ports of Windows to ARM… and historically they had a version that supported other architectures like MIPS and SuperH.

Re: Surprising

I thought Office already ran on Linux via Wine? And Office certainly already runs on Mac OS-X and on IOS.

Regarldess of that, why would Microsoft be required to support an OS with only ~ 1% market share like Linux? Can't see that ever flying.

Re: Surprising

"Requiring Microsoft to port Office to the Linux operating system would be a rather novel application of antitrust"

That isn't a likely or intended outcome. As the article states, the Chinese government tried and failed to introduce their own OS (Red Flag Linux), and due to that failure still have hundreds of millions of PCs running either pirated or legit copies of XP. With XP no longer supported, Redmond wanted a lot more for W7 licences, and the Chinese saw no reason to pay the higher price, or the ransom for extended XP support. The Chinese government already have the option of migrating to any one of a number of vanilla Linux distros and Open Office for next to nothing, but that's not what they want.

The purpose of this investigation is simply to put some serious pressure on Redmond to offer much better terms for W7, and if they aren't forthcoming to fine Microsoft the difference between what they charge and what Beijing want to pay, as well as to force additional costs on them. The probable outcome of this will be that the Chinese government get a much better deal on W7, the investigation will eventually close with minimal or no fines. The only remarkable thing is that Redmond have tried to hold out against the Chinese government for so long, instead of accepting the inevitable, and looking for what would be the most positive outcome after accepting that China are going to pay them peanuts.

An example of that would have been to offer China the price they want, but only for the flagging W8, which then gives W8 serious volume and (hopefully for MS) more traction in corporate markets. Instead, Redmond's stance has hardened Beijing's position on W8, meaning that the discussions centre either on the now five years old W7, or at best on having to give away W9. Having to massively discount your next operating system before it is launched would be a staggering strategic blunder for Microsoft, but they do have a history of epic strategic blundering.

Re: Mac?

Are the Mac and Android versions functionally equivalent to the Windows version?

stealing from a thief is still stealing

you can not counter an allegation on the basis that the other person is a worse criminal than you are.

If you go and steal from the thief who stole from you, it is still illegal. As Apple was reminded when they tried to excuse their anti competitive behaviour in the book market with the argument: "Amazon is worse than we are"

Re: Just a regular software audit.

Yes, Microsoft do audit customers and IT departments will tell you it is a nightmare unless you have signed up to an all encompassing volume licensing package that covers just about everything.

I know personally of global companies that are trying to move towards open source as quickly as possible because of the cost and business impact of audits.