Microsoft chief cheerleader Bill Gates is visiting EU top brass in Belgium today, alas amid security tight enough to prevent a repeat of the flan-flinging attack that put egg-custard all over the world's richest face in February 1998, on Gates's last visit to Brussels.
This time Gates is there to talk turkey about EU antitrust sanctions against Microsoft, in particular the orders that it must open up its code to rivals and must also provide a version of Windows XP that has been stripped of its Media Player accoutrements. Apparently Microsoft's planned name for this product - Windows XP Reduced Media Edition - has gone down about as well in Euroland as a Glaswegian interpreter. Sneak presumes that Gates will have some helpful alternative names to suggest, along the lines of Windows XP Crippled Edition, Windows XP Silent Edition, or perhaps Windows XP Minus. Sneak, however, has a suggestion, bearing in mind the number of firms that would like to stop staff turning desktops into worm-prone, file-swapping, jukebox video machines. Given that the amended version will close off one significant avenue of attack, how about Windows XP Reduced Danger Edition?

01 Feb 2005