Windows Media Player will no longer be shipped with Windows in the EU

seamus

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/22/ms_loses_eu_appeal/

Great news. I don't think WMP has yet made the same impact to the media player market that IE did to the browser market. Better yet, in future it will force people onto the web in search of Media Players. Will MS still be allowed advertise it though - i.e. a popup on install saying "Would you like to download Windows Media Player now?".

Winamp should have held on for 6 months....

dahamsta

I've used Winamp for years but it's resource-hunger pissed me off recently and I uninstalled it in a fit of pique. WMP ain't much better though.

adam

cyberbob

thats not good news atall . it was handy to have on a comp . having to go onto the net to get a media player would be a pain in the ass for alot of people

dahamsta

It's hardly a vital application.

adam

Dempsey

It requires Microsoft to unbundle Media Player and to disclose "interface documentation" sufficient to allow non-Microsoft workgroup servers to achieve full interoperability with Windows PCs and servers to rival vendors.

This is probably the best part of that news.

RobertFoster

Will we ever see an IE-less Windows OS I wonder, or is it too "bulit-in"...?

Dempsey

Probably too integral to the OS and it would disclose alot of "interface documentation". Too much for MS's liking.

Capt'n Midnight

seamus wrote:

Will MS still be allowed advertise it though - i.e. a popup on install saying "Would you like to download Windows Media Player now?".

Nah, they'll just put a linkie up on MSN, and "Use the web service to find an appropiate program" and bundle it with office etc. prossibly make it a critical update etc. etc.

Kali

Terrible news imo.. when people buy a brand new PC now they won't be able to play music or watch videos without first having to setup an internet connection and locate somewhere to find one? sets the whole concept of a PC back a while.. hey next lets not ship it with IE, a CD player, games, calculator etc. and the PC will be next to useless without forking out additional money for third-party software.

Media player is a great all-in-one tool, and while I don't use it personally, many people do... its a handy piece of software that facilitates a task that every PC should be accomplish out of the box.

Seanie M

dahamsta wrote:

I've used Winamp for years but it's resource-hunger pissed me off recently and I uninstalled it in a fit of pique. WMP ain't much better though.

adam

Thats a strange one... I always use Winamp cuz it was harmless on my system. I've used Musicmatch, Sonique, and that real resource monster, WinMedPlayer - hated that one. But Winamp always comes up trumps on performance.

Seanie.

dahamsta

It's a hog on my rig but I think I have a memory leak somewhere anyway, cos Outlook tends to make a landgrab for RAM when it's left idle for a while.

Any (free) way of tracing memory leaks on Windows, now I come to think of it?

adam

Rambo

dahamsta wrote:

It's hardly a vital application.

adam

WRONG

most of the windows windows plugins came from Media player

meaning you nice third party dvd player software will not be able play some
audio and video files

maybe they will live the plugins but i would say no
The original Windows xp cd will be worth more then the new one
they have already took out IMA CODEC which you have to pay for now

It still on the original windows XP CD

joseph brand

foobar2000 v0.8.3 audio player.

Nice and simple, and very quick!! Comes on in 1 second and plays all not a bother.

Quote: 'Foobar2000 is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include ReplayGain support, low memory footprint and native support for several popular audio formats'.

http://www.foobar2000.org/

Try it, it's lovely!

(insert name)

is there any alternative that can play .rm .ram files etc...

RobertFoster

(insert name) wrote:

is there any alternative that can play .rm .ram files etc...

google real alternative.

Fenster

What I find funny about this is that most of the more mainstream Linux distros all come with several different media players bundled.

dahamsta

Rambo wrote:

WRONG

Twat. If I don't consider a media player a vital application, I'm hardly going to think a DVD player's one. You muppet.

adam

1

dahamsta wrote:

Twat. If I don't consider a media player a vital application, I'm hardly going to think a DVD player's one. You muppet.

adam

I think when he was saying wrong he meant your personal opinion you ignorant insulting moran. Who gives a toss if you think a DVD player is important. Come to think of it, Who even mentioned you and a DVD player? Certainly not you.

The guy was speaking in general.

Windows media player is fairly vital to the small familes setting up their pcs this christmas. Not every one is computer literate or savvy. As much as the MS haters out their would love to see their demise they present a good package to the general public.

aphex™

It's a pain to have to go and look for a media player. However, as soemone said earlier, it'll be included with MS office, or even MS works (which was free with my last pc).

Most of the alternatives are buggy (thinking Classic media player) and a pain to install. If it's your first PC, you wont know what you're looking for. It'll be a loss cos it just works out of the box. The real pain with windows is IE. IE is running right now (in some form), even with firefox and no folders open. It wouldn't be that hard to replace it with some firefox mod, i'm sure. It's been removed before.

Unfortunately some ppl will end up with REAL player, and those guys are worse than Microsoft. Some people are going to live in popup hell for the rest of their computing lives because of this.

yossarin

1 wrote:

you ignorant insulting moran

Ah, the ironing !
chill out mate: Rambo mentioned Adam and dvd players.


I think that this ruling is a good development. Look at the new better* web browsers that have come about in the last few years - competition has been a force for good in that product area.

*my opinion obviously, but you know its true

edit: just read what aphex said about real player. a scary possibility

Rambo

I was talking about just media players plugins and how vitial they or

DVD & MP3—an extension to the core services of Windows XP that specifically enables various types of DVD or MP3 playback or encoding functionality. Their actual implementation may use any number of the enhancement types discussed in this column, but it is listed in this column and at WMPlugins.com because it often extends the functionality of Windows Media Player.

you can read me here

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/windowsmediaplayer/expert/bridgman_03march17.mspx

I dont think people release how much of the plugins they use from gaming to buring cd . mp3.
DVD software companys may make there own plugin
Maybe users will have download the plugins separately what I have to do with linux

EU people could just download WMP 9 from microsoft site and load it up

zekiel

Personally I wouldnt miss it but I think for the new user (novice PC user) that this may make life a little more awkward and also take away from the initial experience that they get when they first start to use the PC.

This I see from when I first show people who were completely ignorant of pc's or just feel they cant learn, they see the simplicity of the media player and what it shows them ie.. radio stations or a host of the options that come with it. Its all very simple and nice for them and helps them begin to understand what available to them through a PC.

Also for those who have no internet access this removes a certian amount of functinality from the pc.

dahamsta

1 wrote:

he meant your personal opinion you ignorant insulting moran

Heh, mission accomplished. Next!