I would have thought, being capitalist, the EU couldn't do that to Microsoft.
So what you're saying is that in a capitalist society, government should only protect corporations against liability, but not be allowed to regulate fair trade agreements? Apple does the exact same thing and are the only real competition to MS.
First of all, Apple don't do the exact same thing, because Apple does not operate a monopoly, and does not employ predatory tactics in order to maintain it. I wonder if the videolan player is one of the whinge bag developers behind the the lawsuit. Somehow I doubt it.
This EU thing is not a corporate law suit, unlike the ones Microsoft threatened the VideoLan guys with. Microsoft is simply in violation of EU law (much like they are in the US). The difference is that Microsofts friends in the DoJ (I'm talking here specificly of former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who promptly dropped an ongoing five year antitrust lawsuit investigation against campaign contributor Microsoft within weeks of taking office) do not protect it in the EU. Presumably, EU politicians want their own bribes. What is wrong with bundling software with Windows, anyway?
It's called antitrust, and it's illegal in free economies. I, the consumer, do not want this to happen.
You would prefer perhaps being forced to pay whatever Microsoft demands whenever Microsoft demands it? I didn't just buy Windows to be able to run Exe files. I bought it for the Start menu, the easy installation stuff, system restore, the control panel, and the on-screen keyboard!
Linux has all those things you mentioned. You bought Windows to be able to play games. If the stuff that comes bundled with Windows shouldn't be there because it hurts people's business, what about other free software that comes off of the Internet?
Again free software does not hurt business. There are way to compete with free software. There are no ways to compete with a predatory monopoly. Isn't Linux hurting the business of OS people who make oeprating systems?
How many people do you know who runs Linux as their primary OS? It's certainly not hurting Microsofts business much. Is SourceForge.net killing free competition in the software industry?
No, things that are free (as in speech not beer) cannot possibly hurt competition, as all competitors have a level playing field. For instance if I where to write a new low-level BSD style socket library, and offer it under an MIT style license, I am not creating a slanted market, as both Microsoft, Apple and whatever Linux distributions care to use it, can. Thus no single company has an unfair competitive advantage over the other.