Time You Enjoy Wasting Is Not Wasted Time

Web browser company Opera has filed another antitrust complaint against Microsoft with the EU (press release link). They claim that Microsoft is a monopoly for bundling Internet Explorer to their Windows Operating System. The fact that people still consider Microsoft a monopoly when there is an even bigger monopoly to deal with just blows my mind. Microsoft makes Operating Systems and Software. Some of the software is bundled with the OS, like Internet Explorer is. However, if I don’t like IE I can freely run Mozilla Firefox or Opera or any other browser I care to. If I don’t like Windows I can install Linux. If I don’t like the price from Dell I can buy from Toshiba or HP or a host of other brands or I can even purchase the parts separately and build my own computer as I see fit.

I want to know where is the outrage against the true monopoly, Apple Inc. You can only buy your computer from Apple, with hardware they decide you can have. It comes loaded with the Apple OS, which also has a ton of bundled software including a web browser. If you don’t like the price Apple sets, too bad. You can’t go anywhere else. If you buy an iPod you can only use iTunes. You even need to use iTunes to set up your iPhone. I should be able to buy a phone and not have it tied to a specific piece of software, just like my portable music player should be software neutral. Apple is also guilty of misleading consumers. People are led to believe that they need an Apple computer to use an iPod or to make a podcast or do video editing or a host of other tasks that are easily done on a Windows PC for less cost.

It will be a happy day when the Apple monopoly is challenged. Until then maybe Microsoft should paraphrase that taser guy. I bet a “Don’t sue me, bro!!” campaign would be quite popular.