Microsoft has decided not to appeal against an European court order which will see sanctions enforced against the software giant. The EU sanctions compel the world's largest software maker to introduce a stripped down version of its Windows computer operating system. Microsoft will have to offer a version of its operating system without its own Windows Media Player pre-installed. So does this mean Longhorn will not have media player pre-installed? What about Microsofts Media Centre OS, I bet that gets to keep media player pre-installed anyway? Full story here.
RealPlayer & Apple, well those two are, well horrible. ergh. Mabye the EU should just make a site that LISTS the alternatives or something? And make microsoft give out some instruction to visit the site with their products.
Learn to spell. But I agree that Quicktime is a very good player. WMP has more features (video, music, guide, etc), but I think several of the Apple products are far better as seperate products (iTunes, iMovie).
Personally out of everything I've tried, I've HATED everything but Winamp, which I love. WinDVD for movies but winamp for the rest. Honestly I don't see why anyone cares, if it doesn't come with something it's just wasted bandwidth because the people that use WMP either a) like it or b) could care less what they use and it's not like deterring other media players affects profits or anything.
Media Player Classic + K-Lite codec pack = happiness! I use WMP on occasion since a lot of 3rd party apps intergrate well with it. It does its job well enough to justify its use. At no point has MS detered me from using another player. I have been blessed with a basic understanding that I have a choice.
Media Player Classic WinDVD Winamp. Quick time is stupid, interface anoys me, and its more like oooh i'm in a moch brush alliminum finish, which really sums up apple products now, there all so, stupid. Nothing original just more about making one, and mass marketing. Real Alternative Thank you, real player is a pain in the rectum. but thats just my 2 cents. i still say that rather than stop functionality with the product the powers that be should be doing more to help promot others as fairly (ie some how include them in box).
Quicktime is about as reliable as, well, I don't know what to compare it to. I've never had anything that has screwed up as much as Quicktime has... iTunes sucks as well (haven't tried any of the more recent versions, and have no desire to). I tend to use a combo of Winamp Classic and WMP for my music needs (though I installed Winamp 5 recently and it seems ok). Yeah sure they may not be as full featured, but all I want to do is listen to the mp3s I've already ripped To be honest the EU court is just a bunch of morons. What's next, ask apple to provide their OS without a gui because they have a monopoly on that market?
WMP 10 (XP MCE), Quick altrnative, Real alternative, PowerDVD, Nvidia DVD decoder. They own. Had realplayer on my system and all the ads and tools just p***ed me off! I'm glad that now I can run everything in a single player. Never really got on with winamp myself but the customisability and plugins are cooool.
i disagree on the quicktime thing - imo the "worst" piece of software ever invented... i dont have it installed - yet the quicktime icon appears everytime i boot up. it wont fullscreen without me paying for it WMP is descent - though i have quibbles with it now (such as them stupid bars at the top and bottom in FS mode, which appear "whenever" you move the mouse!) - and its "attemping to download codec" thing, which has never worked for me.
i prefer using itunes for listing to my well itunes for everything else its good old WMP, i used to use MMJ.. when i used to have a legit key
I have always found Quicktime crap also, nothing but trouble, and the interface. uhhh Winamp and WinDVD rules for me.
I like the fact that EU is not tolerating Microsoft's games. I regard Explorer and Winmedia/ Winamp as separate applications. Sell them seprately, there should be no "3rd party" crap, just another application developer that works in the windows OS.
