Everything, Everything

Okay, so they\'re rich, and can afford to pay these fines, but I think it's unfair that they should. At the bottom of this BBC News article they mention the previous fine that was imposed by the EC ("The judgment also called for Microsoft to debundle its Windows Media Player from its Windows operating system, and slapped the software firm with a record fine of 497m euros"). Microsoft provided this version, Windows XP N, and no one has bought it. I\'m not joking, the facts are here on Microsoft's site (last updated April 2006): "Sales figures indicate that there has been virtually no demand from PC manufacturers, retailers and consumers for Windows XP N, the version of Windows XP that does not include multimedia functionality provided by Windows Media Player technologies"

Here are the damning facts:

XP N sales represent 0.005 percent (1/20,000th of one percent) of overall XP sales in Europe.
No PC manufacturers have ordered or preinstalled Windows XP N on PCs.
Only 1,787 copies of Windows XP N have been sold to retailers and distributors in Europe.
The number of copies actually purchased by consumers is not tracked; many may still be sitting on store shelves. The French retailer FNAC, the single largest retailer to order XP N representing 46% of the orders, has stated that it sees no consumer demand for Windows XP N.
By comparison, 35.5 million copies of the fully functional version of Windows XP were sold in Europe during the same nine-month period.

So who else thinks it's unfair that MS had to pay a fine of half a million euros for an OS that less than 2000 copies have been sold, and most of those are probably still sat on retail store shelves? It would be cheaper to give each person a normal copy of Windows XP and 250 euros in compensation for the inconvenience (effectively making it a free copy).