Micro$oft doesn't like PCs sold without Windows
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| henke54 Apr 05, 2006 9:14 PM EDT |
"Is selling PCs without an OS installed a bad idea for retailers? Microsoft thinks so. In an article in Microsoft's Partner Update magazine, (link found in this ZDNet article), Microsoft's anti-piracy head Michala Alexander advises retailers to avoid selling "naked" PCs, saying that doing so puts the vendors at risk."
Systems with Windows preinstalled can be a source of frustration for shoppers. Even if you're only after the hardware and your plans for a shiny new PC don't involve Windows at all, you're still stuck paying for an operating system you don't want. The Free Software Foundation is not impressed with Microsoft's new initiative, saying that Microsoft is out to spy on retailers and consumers. "It looks like a private sniffing service which is supposed to spy on these who do not want to pay the Microsoft tax anymore. It is an incredible piece of impudence which any politician, customer and journalist should recognise carefully," said [FSF Europe spokesperson Joachim] Jakobs. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060405-6531.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39261437,00.htm |
| henke54 Apr 10, 2006 3:10 AM EDT |
Mon Apr 10, 2006
By Lindsay Beck BEIJING (Reuters) - China's computer manufacturers must install operating software before their goods leave the factory gates, the latest effort to address the thorny issue of piracy before President Hu Jintao visits the United States. The order was given in a notice issued jointly by the Ministry of Information Industry, the State Copyright Bureau and the Ministry of Commerce on March 31 and released to reporters on Monday." http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=intern... micro$uck has found THE trick ... :-/ |
| salparadise Apr 10, 2006 3:40 AM EDT |
Hardware tax. They do it here in the UK (or did last time I heard). Our schools don't pay MS per copy of WIndows, they pay them per machine capable of running Windows. So even if the school wants to go OSS, MS still get their pound of flesh (as well as discouraging people from changing). This is beyond outrageous. Of course, if MS were really serious about combatting piracy they would make Windows and Office genuinely affordable by the poor/disadvantaged. Stories like this show their true intentions and should, I think, make us take all this "we're going to support Linux" stuff with a whole heap of salt. |
| grouch Apr 10, 2006 3:23 PM EDT |
"They do it here in the UK (or did last time I heard). Our schools don't pay MS per copy of WIndows, they pay them per machine capable of running Windows.
So even if the school wants to go OSS, MS still get their pound of flesh (as well as discouraging people from changing)." Yep, same here. That's how MS circumvents the totally ineffective U.S. DoJ settlement regarding per-CPU charges to OEMs. They simply moved the per-CPU charges outward one layer in the stinky monopoly onion. Same effect, but, at least here in the US, the MS DoJ is unlikely to ever make a noise about it again. |
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