Author: Christophe Theron
Date: 10:01:59 08/12/04
Go up one level in this thread
On August 11, 2004 at 15:31:53, Eugene Nalimov wrote:
>On August 11, 2004 at 14:29:41, Frank Phillips wrote:
>
>>...
>>
>>Fair points.
>>
>>Luckily I can still buy a different car with a different radio, for example. Or
>>indeed a different car because I want a different radio.
>
>Yes, and likewise you can buy Dell/IBM/Toshiba system with Linux preinstalled.
>And probably that will be differently configured system, exactly like you'll
>have to buy different car if you want particular radio.
Sorry Eugene but you are spreading some misinformation here.
You can purchase *some* *selected* models from Dell/IBM/Toshiba/HP with Linux
preinstalled.
Here for example you can indeed purchase a Dell server system that comes
preinstalled with Linux.
But that's all about it.
There is *NO* way you will be able to purchase a Dell/IBM/Toshiba/HP laptop or
even desktop computer with either Linux preinstalled or with no system at all.
Nobody in France or elsewhere can buy a laptop computer from these manufacturers
without Windows installed on it. I mean unless you have some very special
relationship with the manufacturer.
Enter a shop and try to purchase a laptop without Windows: it is IMPOSSIBLE.
The workaround for this is, in theory, to buy the computer, to refuse the
Microsoft EULA when you start the OS for the first time, and to ask for a refund
of the OS. In practice it is also impossible to get this refund. And I also do
not understand why I would have first to pay without discussion for an item I'm
not going to use just to get a refund later. That's crazy. Even if it was
possible - and it's not.
This situation has been for years, and the worse about it is that it is ILLEGAL
in France to link the purchase of software to the purchase of the hardware.
You can say it is not completely Microsoft's fault, and you are probably partly
right. However, I remember that some years ago there have been investigations
over some special terms in the contracts between Microsoft and several
manufacturers. The terms explicitely gave a better price to the manufacturer for
every copy of Windows if the manufacturer agreed to not sell any other operating
system, and to not sell any computer without an operating system.
It is obvious that Microsoft has for a very long time pressured the
manufacturers in order to maintain its monopoly, and it is most probably still
doing it at this time, maybe in a smarter way.
Christophe
>>I did not know about Windows covering up faulty hardware - so computer suppliers
>>can make money out of selling shoddy goods.
>
>Yes, and Windows contains workarounds for bugs in software applications as well.
>Not only for Microsoft applications -- people who looked at the leaked Windows
>source found workarounds for tens of 3rd party products.
>
>>Yes, M9.2 (at least) emptied LG CD ROM bioses. Not sure if this was entirely
>>the fault of the software. IIRC, I think the CD responded in an atypical, if
>>not wrong, manner to a software probe.
>
>Yes, problem may be in the hardware, but often it's possible to change the
>software so the problem does not manifest itself. Average user doesn't want to
>ship his PC to the manufacturer so his CD drive would be replaced. He wants to
>be able just to use it.
>
>>Nice image of shops selling (broken) hardware as a way of making money out of
>>the 'free' installed software......but does this not illustrate that MS are
>>subsidising computer sellers in order to maintain their strangle-hold on the
>>market ;-) Co-bundling is illegal of course, in some countries.
>
>OEMs choose the prices, not MS, and there are lot of them, and they are
>(supposedly) independent ones. By settlement terms MS is forced to license its
>software to the top 20 OEMs on the unifom terms.
>
>Thanks,
>Eugene
>
>>Frank
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