Windows XP RME

Windows XP Reduced Media Edition

So what’s new with this?
Comes with SP2 merged by default. Okay good.
Windows Media Player stripped out because the European Union court ruled that it was “unfair monopolising”. Idiotic.

Why?
Because now, windows can’t recognise and play its own media formats (.wmv, wma, etc.) Well, while its acceptable that most of us don’t ever use WMP…. hey wait! Then what was that about monopolising? Is that statement valid at all, when 90% of people would just ignore WMP’s existence and install winamp or foobar2k or something…

So now it looks like a good idea to remove what you don’t use?
Think again. First, it was easy enough to remove WMP yourself using a tool like nLite.
Second, now that RME has deprived you of WMP, you can’t anymore ignore its existence. Ironical, but true. Absence makes the heart grow fonder… :P When you go to streaming media sites, if you are not brain-dead you will choose WindowsMedia over RealMedia. When you get WMA songs ripped by the saner part of the world that stuck with a normal XP install, you immediately find it doesn’t play. When you install the newest games made by Microsoft Studios, you find yourself in the deaf world? Oh noooo….. that was your RME which had no codecs for windows media. Lastly, the RME and the normal versions both cost the same. So which’d you rather get? Because even if you hate WMP, you don’t mind it being tucked away in a corner of the installation – ready for when you need it.

Its hardly a wonder then, that most OEMs (yes, its not in retail, YET) in Europe who are getting their OS through this channel, just bundle Windows Media Player 10 along with their XP RME machines. Oh, did Gates forget to tell you that v10 is even more “bloaty” than what you seeked to escape? By the way….. ahemm…. errrmmmm…… now what’s the deal on that entire argument about monopoly and how WMP being on the system deprives competing vendors of opportunities?

Don’t look at me, but someone’s showing the finger, and whoever is being shown it, is a deserving candidate.