Quote Originally Posted by techs
[B]The big deal here is that Realplayer developed software, developed a market and when MS saw there was money in it they included their version of it for free.
Poo and other expletives.

Windows Media Player has been in Windows since about Windows 95 that I know of (MPLAYER2.EXE) - in fact the Win95a release had MP3 support though few people know this. Its roots go back to "Video for Windows" in Windows 3.1 and has been improved and upgraded ever since.

IIRC, it was when Real updated to the new G2 standard that Microsoft stopped supporting it. Why? Dunno. Maybe Real quit licensing it to Microsoft because they saw the coming battle. At that time Real had a huge lead over Microsoft in the streaming media market.

They don't any more. And maybe it's not Microsoft's fault.

Me, I won't install it or allow it to be installed on any PC (at home or at work) because it is too intrusive. Media Player doesn't pop up "mail" and "announcements" at random intervals trying to get me to spend more money on Microsoft products. Media player doesn't hook the system tray so it can annoy me at regular intervals. Media Player doesn't start up with a main welcome screen where half the stuff it shows is not available unless I pay a subscription fee.

I can't believe I'm the only person who feels that way.