The point is that it SHOULDN'T be legal for M$ to have them sign agreements like that...
in fact, it should be punishably illegal. thats like telling GM that all your cars must have firestone tyres if you ever plan on having firestone on any of them.. Its ridiculous and only in the IT industry could it happen. rgd Frank -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:newbie-owner@;linux-mandrake.com]On Behalf Of Todd Slater Sent: Tuesday, 12 November 2002 11:26 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [newbie] I'm getting peeved! 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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