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A comment on Apple hit with over 1.8B euro EU antitrust fine in Spotify case. Parent comment

Re:Apple hit with over 1.8B euro EU antitrust fine in Spotif... by laborcontract on Monday March 04, 2024 @08:28AM (#39590196) 

    > Didn't stop you from selling your SW for the Windows platform without paying Microsoft a dime or Microsoft having any way to stop you.
If Microsoft could have, they would have. The only way to sell software was in boxes and intermediaries took 80% of developers money.
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Re:Apple hit with over 1.8B euro EU antitrust fine in Spotif... by FirmwareBurner on Monday March 04, 2024 @08:30AM (#39590222)
>The only way to sell software was in boxes and intermediaries took 80% of developers money.

But did Microsoft take their money like Apple does today?

The internet and shareware distributions was also a thing back then, where you get the SW for free from anywhere, and send a payment to the developer and received an activation key over the phone/post.

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Re:Apple hit with over 1.8B euro EU antitrust fine in Spotif... by laborcontract on Monday March 04, 2024 @08:40AM (#39590334)
I think you're taking all of the decisions that led up to the success of the iPhone for granted. For instance, if this path is such a no-brainer, why doesn't Microsoft install a walled garden of their own? It's not due to the beneficence of their hearts.

Something that is a surefire success in one platform is not necessarily a surefire success in another. Which is why saying in hindsight "this is monopolistic behavior!" is such a silly thing to do.

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Re:Apple hit with over 1.8B euro EU antitrust fine in Spotif... by eecc on Monday March 04, 2024 @09:17AM (#39590770)
Well, for one MS Visual Studio used to cost a fortune. Sure you could use whatever other -- also expensive -- DE or compiler but the end result and the ergonomics weren't as good.

If I'm not mistaken you also had to pay to redistribute or link to system libraries so yeah, you had to pay a pretty penny to play.

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