Shame on the Manufacturers!
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| dcparris Dec 02, 2005 9:23 AM EDT |
Hans, I don't know how you had the patience to follow through on any one of those. What a nightmare! Manufacturers should be ashamed of themselves over this! |
| tuxchick Dec 02, 2005 3:44 PM EDT |
No kidding. What a farce. I guess these sorts of consumer policy questions are national security. |
| dcparris Dec 02, 2005 7:38 PM EDT |
Yep! Top Secret! Need to know basis only. And consumers do not have the need to know. Oh, wait, aren't they the ones buying the products? Very well, then. They definitely have no need to know. |
| dinotrac Dec 03, 2005 2:48 AM EDT |
I continue to consider this hyperventilation silly. The real shame is that manufacturers don't offer their pcs without Windows. As to Windows refunds --- huh? Dell's answer is probably best: If you don't want Windows, don't buy a Windows PC. I agree that they are pretty stupid not to disseminate a clear policy to the appropriate people. There is no magic, no need to do anything special. The answers could be along these lines: 1. Oh sure. Just bring the whole thing back and we'll give you a refund. 2. On the other hand, if you want to return just the operating system, we will need the bar code so that we can void the warranty and mark your box as unsupported. Oh...and there is a $50 special handling fee which -- What do you know! is exactly the refund value of Windows. But we're happy to help you. |
| hkwint Dec 03, 2005 3:43 AM EDT |
Quoting:The real shame is that manufacturers don't offer their pcs without Windows. Indeed. Consider this as a 'forcing' attempt. Quoting:1. Oh sure. Just bring the whole thing back and we'll give you a refund. Darnit, they should offer you a job at some OEMs legal department! In the interest of the survey, I can't tell about the answers I got, but you're real close! Anyway, thats what we got the Competition Authority for. Its a shame you don't speak Dutch, since there's a very nice legal essay on this subject by S. van Geffen: http://www.ivir.nl/publicaties/vangeffen/scriptie/tekst.html (Well, the subject of the essay is a bit different, but the closest I could find) |
| sbergman27 Dec 03, 2005 7:01 AM EDT |
The really irritating thing about Dean is that he is so grounded in reality. When he speaks he makes so much "God Damned Sense (tm)". :-/ |
| dinotrac Dec 03, 2005 10:34 AM EDT |
Hans -- I worked a few months in Rotterdam twenty years ago. Determined not to be too ugly an American, I proceeded to learn some Dutch phrases. It's not easy, by the way. I came to understand why I saw so many conversations between a Dutchman speaking Dutch and somebody else speaking English. Understanding Dutch and speaking it are two different animals.... Anyway... My first experience trying out my pitiful little bit of Dutch came late on a Saturday night, and I was lost. I went up to the first person I saw and asked for directions in Dutch. You know what I got? Yup! Directions in Dutch. Fortunately, the guy had a great sense of humor and, on recognizing my plight, gave me directions in better English than most of us speak over hear in the US of A. |
| Abe Dec 03, 2005 1:45 PM EDT |
Ok guys, isn't kind of unfair not to mention HP as the only OEM that offers most of their business desktops with both Windows AND Linux? You can even configure and purchase on-line. What more do we need? http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF04a/12454-64287-89... http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF04a/12454-64287-89... Check it out and tell me what you think. The Linux or "no OS" configurations are usually $125-$135 less than the Windows ones. I & a friend of mine personally bought couple of them and saved $130 each. I think HP deserves some good words for their support of Linux. And yes I know, they have that "HP recommends Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional" every where, but hay, it is a company trying to make money any way they can. |
| colesen Jan 01, 2006 2:28 PM EDT |
I understand the motive and frustration? - I think everybody would like to see some competition in the OS market (except of course MS). There's a choice with all other ingredients - from the screws that hold the motherboard in place to internet service provider. (Not long ago Intel was the only choice of CPU but thanks in part to help from the German Government AMD is now another choice).
But layman does not want to fiddle with installing an OS even if there was a choice. Just like no one would want to fiddle with installing software in their digital camera. (Why are digital cameras not more like computers or visa versa? I can buy a computer in pieces for a self build (and I do - I'm writing from one). But not a digital camera. Why can't I buy lens, housing, CCD, LCD, board, etc. for a self build as I can with a computer? I think Apple tried to build computers as digital cameras e.g. everything. MS chose to stay out of the hardware but instead support the manufacturers. It didn't work for Apple but it is working for the digital camera makers. And there are lots of them.) Ideally, the OS would not be something you buy preinstalled. Nor something you need to fiddle with. It would be on a flash drive or similar - something you pick out on aisle 17, plug into that new computer of yours and off you go. I think Linux will keep gaining ground. But still only slowly. Involving money would increase the speed. I wouldn't mind paying for Linux - if everybody else also did. Alternatively I don't think I would mind banner ads in every window of KDE if that would help - just like Opera had until recently. It shall be interesting to learn how hard the OS is tied to the computer. My guess is pretty hard because MS has the weapon of penalizing the manufacturers by reducing rebates. |
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