My quest would be 'getting the law suits ready'.

Perhaps. I'd just rather know that the EU was doing something about it *now*
rather than waiting for the interminable law suits.

I doubt if it'll get that far as MS have been
badly stung by the EU in the past. Hopefully they've learned their lesson. And
even more hopefully, maybe the rest of the world's governments have learned that
they don't have to just roll over and let MS walk all over them.

I just read an article that basically takes the position that this is a
non-issue. The idea is that the landscape is changing so fast and MS is so
late that it won't have much net result. We don't know if W8 will fly. MS
has such a lousy track record on devices and ARM is not that popular yet.
It may just be getting our shorts in a knot for nothing. Who knows?

People have a habit of suspecting the worst and in the case of MS with some
justification, but perhaps we need to wait a bit before going to the EU.

Only trouble is, the courts require proof. And they won't have proof until
it comes out.

Someone could theoretically get a court injunction preventing anti
competitive action based on their plans. There is precedent for that. Apple
does it all of the time and even gets away with using faked photos.

There's also the chance that the EU may have already said to MS
something along the lines of we would rather you didn't do this, but if
you do, please expect to be taken to court.

There's been a lot of speculation about how the EU will surely put a
stop to this, but little (read: nothing) in the way of hard fact. Which
is why I contacted my MEPs - to find out what the position actually *is*
rather than just what we would like it to be :-)

Anyway, just got an autoreply from one of them saying that they 'try' to
reply to all queries within 20 days, so don't hold your breath waiting
for an answer :-)

Yeah but you are talking about MS. Who gets away with any thing they want
in the US.

Well, I've finally got a reply and it does not make for encouraging reading.

"...this is obviously a very complicated subject. As such, we have been
in touch with our group advisors in the European Parliament and it would
seem that there is no clear EU position on this and there are currently
no discussions taking place on this matter in the European Parliament. "