Author: Frank Phillips
Date: 09:36:17 08/13/04
Go up one level in this thread
On August 13, 2004 at 11:53:50, Christophe Theron wrote: >On August 12, 2004 at 15:55:45, Eugene Nalimov wrote: > >>On August 12, 2004 at 14:37:14, Ed Schröder wrote: >> >>>On August 12, 2004 at 13:22:51, Christophe Theron wrote: >>> >>>>That's not really the problem. The problem is about abuse of power by one >>>>company that has repeatedly proven that it does not hesitate to break the law >>>>whenever it sees an opportunity to get more control over the world. Now that a >>>>strong alternative exists, why are we still giving our money and support to the >>>abuser? >>> >>>For which misuse of power the EU recently penalized MS for 500 million euro. >>> >>>As a frequent buyer of new hardware I estimate I have at least paid 10 times for >>>W98/XP while I did not want to have it. It's almost impossible here to buy a new >>>PC without Windows. >>> >>>Ed >> >>Ed, as I posted in that thread several times, in the USA large manufacturers are >>selling PCs without Windows preinstalled. If situation in Europe is different, >>that is not MS fault. >> >>I previous posts I gave some numbers and speculated why manufacturers are >>preferring to sell Windows-only systems: >> >>http://www.talkchess.com/forums/1/message.html?381764 >>http://www.talkchess.com/forums/1/message.html?381847 >> >>Thanks, >>Eugene > > > >Nice theory study using an Internet search that does not hold water when you try >in practice, in the real world, to get a computer from a known brand without >Windows. It is very difficult to get a desktop computer from Dell/HP/IBM/Toshiba >and so on without Windows. It is in practice IMPOSSIBLE to get a laptop from >these manufacturers without Windows. > > > > Christophe My practical local experience too. Maybe MS is not totally to blame, as Eugene suggests, but unless all the money is made from the knock down price of the installed software then I cannot see why a retailing would allow to walk out of the door rather than sell you a top of the range laptop - having said 'I will not accept the MS licence'. It seemed more likely that the retailer got knock down MS software only by selling only machines with MS installed - no other OS nor bare machines. (To be fair to one of the big chains there was a Mac on sale. At least I think it was, since it was a strange design and hellishly expensive). Interestingly one of the retailers confirmed the model in question would work with Linux ... he had bought one and installed Linux to use in perference to XP. Frank
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