On 22 Mar 2010, at 22:09, Alan McKinnon wrote:
....
There is nothing unfair about this. No vendor has a *duty* so sell
you
what you want and they cannot be forced to. Microsoft does not
enforce
that vendors sell Windows-only machines (and they proved as such
to the
relevant Commission). ...
Well you I'll have to agree with you that it's not unfiar or
anything else
as such. I do however think that it would be benefitial to the
consumer if
the market was more open than it's current state. That being said
we do
have the option to buy costumized computers without the MS tax.
It's not all dark in this tunnel. There is light at the end, and no,
it's not
the train's headlights ;-)
Customer demand is still the best way to get providers to change their
offerings. We who want OS-less machines, or machines with Linux,
might be few
today, but that doesn't have to be true for tomorrow.
The problem is that manufacturers subsidise the cost of the PC by
preinstalling junk on them.
They install Norton or McAfee anti-virus with a "free" 3 month
subscription, because Norton or McAfee give them a kickback. I would
imagine this is in the region of $10 - $20. They install desktop
shortcuts to eBay, to Big Fish Games (or whatever it's called) set the
browser's homepage and the default search shows more ads than useful
results. They probably get a penny a click on those, but over the
lifetime of a computer, this can add up.
In all I wouldn't be surprised if the crapware on a new PC pays more
than the Windows license costs the manufacturer. Selling PCs with a
blank hard-drive would cost them money, therefore! The cost of porting
browser toolbars and "search redirect" hijackers to enable them to
sell Linux-based PCs is just not worth the effort, and a Linux user is
more likely to uninstall them, anyway.
Manufacturers accept that some of the PCs they sell will have Windows
wiped and Linux installed, but they don't have to like or encourage
it. :(
I very much dislike Microsoft's abuse of its monopoly position, but I
don't have any easy answers right now.
Stroller.
