On Tue, Nov 12, 2002 at 12:45:44PM +0000, Anne Wilson wrote: > On Tuesday 12 Nov 2002 11:57 am, you wrote: > > On Tue, 2002-11-12 at 21:45, Anne Wilson wrote: > > > at the predictable response from hardware manufacturers. I don't usually > > > snap at people like this, but... > > > > > > Quote > > > > > > OK - I'll buy a Hauppage card that does. > > > > > > Anne > > > > Anne, look - for all intents and purposes, you're swimming upstream > > here. Manufacturers don't care about US - they care about money. They > > care about marketing. > > In the end, lost sales do count. Mine alone will do nothing, but the more > often we can tell them that we have gone to a competitor who does better and > the sooner they will take notice.
Exactly. I checked out an offer from Gateway for a $399 computer. I went into a Gateway support chat session and asked if I could get a Gateway computer without an operating system. The support person said that no, Gateway can't sell a computer without an OS, they have an agreement with MS. Thank you very much, I said. On exiting the chat, I was prompted to fill out a survey on the experience. Under additional comments, I asked, "I wonder how many more computers Gateway could sell if it didn't force customers to pay the Microsoft tax?" I'm sure Gateway has a beancounter that has figured out that they will make more money bending over for MS than they will selling OS-less systems. But I'm just as sure that as soon as the numbers change, so will the policy. Or, when the demand for OS-less computers is sufficient, Gateway will dump its agreement with MS. It felt good to say it, though :) Todd
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