Should they have to un-bundle Windows Explorer, Notepad, Photo Viewer, Control Panel, and all the other utilities as well, under the same logic? If not, why?
1) technically? yes, absolutely- apps like explorer or photo viewer should only use public APIs so other companies can make comparable apps on the OS with 90% market share
2) these are all OS utilities, not workplace apps - there's a big difference between Adobe/Microsoft Office/Google bundling their apps where there's a very clear, very powerful disincentive to compete vs something like explorer.
I think part of the problem is "what is an OS utility" and "what is an app". All your OS configuration could be done via a REST API, text files or some other well defined protocol. So you could have competing configuration apps that all help you manage your config in their own way and unbundle the control panel. Realistically looking at your average sparse linux distro shows just how "minimal" an OS can be, and even they bundle applications. Yet, I realistically don't thing consumers or the tech market at large would be assisted by a law mandating that all operating systems be as minimal as the linux kernel (no GNU/Linux, that's bundling!). And even if you did go that far, now we get into arguments over monolithic kernels and micro kernels.
sorry, no, that shouldn't be allowed either. as someone who's working on a cloud task scheduler, OS's should be forced to unbundle thread management. Linux needs to be banned in the EU until it doesn't come with a default thread manager.
Bundling is not illegal as long as the bundling is not forced. When Microsoft got into trouble by bundling Media Player with Windows, the fix was to offer Windows with or and without Media Player (“Windows N”). The bundled offer became legal by also offering the unbundled version.
and the hilarious part is that just like with IE it addressed completely non-existent problem as the future showed that the users went after subscription services and browsing on mobile.
Part of me almost feels the EU owes Microsoft an apology for the amount of private time, people and money Windows N and the browser ballot stuff took up in the XP days, given how much they were forced to invest in certain efforts that so utterly failed to change anything about the status quo.
Chrome didn't need a browser ballot to defeat IE. Almost no one bought or shipped the N versions of Windows. Spotify, iTunes et al still managed to come around just fine despite that pesky default install of Windows Media Player!
If you ask me they should also be forced to sell Windows Media Player separately.
Although I may be ok with no requiring them to port it to OSes other than Windows. But you should at least be able to gaze at the bytes without buying Windows.
