Office Depot stops selling products non-compliant with XP

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2003-03-30 04:42am

Saw this article on another forum:

Microsoft logo scheme means Office Depot won't sell non-compliant XP products

Some other links:
Office Depot Joins Microsoft to Form Best-of-Breed Services To Serve Small and Growing Businesse

Office Depot Partners with Microsoft in Small Business Deal

Slashdots take on the original article

(It is actually quite hard to find other articles, lots of anti-microsoft crap really distorts the search results)

This means Windows products that might run on Win XP that don't have the logo will be pulled from the shelves.

My question is this a good or a bad thing for the end-user, and a good or a bad thing for the software/hardware developers?

Personally I see this as a major plus for the end-user, and the software/hardware developers having to get off their ass and actually design & implement a semi-good quality product that works nicely with the rest of the OS & other apps.

Now if someone could just force PC game developers to be winXP complient I would be happy (alt-tab compadiable anyone?)

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-03-30 05:21am

Whether this turns out to somehow create better programs is a non-issue in the face of another of Microsoft's obvious monopoly practices.

Wish some giant corporation would just gobble up Microsoft and spit it out into smaller companies, aka corporate raiding.

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2003-03-30 05:34am

Shinova wrote:Whether this turns out to somehow create better programs is a non-issue in the face of another of Microsoft's obvious monopoly practices.

Eh?
Office Depot is the one doing this. They are the ones who desided to implemet this desision. I really doubt they(Office Depot) entred a agreement which forbit them from selling non-complient crap. And from what I hear, if your a crappy niave company with little to no forplanning going into agreements with Microsoft normally means the crappy company comes out worse. But thats normal business practices.

Wish some giant corporation would just gobble up Microsoft and spit it out into smaller companies, aka corporate raiding.

Sorry, the only companys big enough to buy out a controlling interest(anyway Gates owns a very large stock and could easily hold out for as long as he wants) would be exactly the wrong type of companies.

Anyway Microsoft is a small fish compared to the mining companies, pharamsuticals & weapons sellers etc.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-03-30 05:50am

Shinova wrote:Whether this turns out to somehow create better programs is a non-issue in the face of another of Microsoft's obvious monopoly practices.

Wish some giant corporation would just gobble up Microsoft and spit it out into smaller companies, aka corporate raiding.

Uh, wasn't it supposed to have been split up already due to a court order?

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2003-03-30 06:00am

neoolong wrote: Uh, wasn't it supposed to have been split up already due to a court order?

Uh, what rock have you been hiding under for the past 1-2 years?

That got killed along time ago by an appeal. One thing Microsoft has is a very very good legal department. And the Bush admistration had different policies than the previous.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-03-30 06:08am

ggs wrote:
neoolong wrote: Uh, wasn't it supposed to have been split up already due to a court order?
Uh, what rock have you been hiding under for the past 1-2 years?

That got killed along time ago by an appeal. One thing Microsoft has is a very very good legal department. And the Bush admistration had different policies than the previous.

I try not to read the news too much. It's depressing.

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2003-03-30 06:55am

Yet another nail in the coffin of Microsoft's monopoly, God I hate them.

Worst part is, I own stock in that company.

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2003-03-30 08:02am

This is a good thing?
BS.

I use windows XP, do you know what?
Almost nothing I have is "Windows XP certified"....even my nvidia drivers for my graphics card arent.....the only things that ever crash are parts of windows itself....

Microsoft XP certification is a sticker to say "we have officially paid our microsoft dues"....it really means little......

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-03-30 02:54pm

Actually, if you get the sticker it shows that Microsoft actually has tested the program.

The WHQL-certification for drivers does mean something - that Microsoft has tested (usually fairly thoroughly) the drivers to stability. It isn't a perfect test by any means, but I usually get a more stable system than if I decided to use non-WHQL drivers.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-03-30 02:56pm

This is good for Office Depot, because now the programs they sell can more or less be virtually guarunteed to run on some consumer's box. They won't have to deal with some guy coming in and screaming that it didn't run (despite what the box claimed) and demanding a refund.