11 Oct
2011
11 Oct
'11
12:26 p.m.
On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 02:38:30PM -0400, Jason McBrien wrote:
On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 1:52 PM, Ian King <IanK at
vulcan.com> wrote:
Oh, you certainly could. Simply buy the machine as a set of carefully
selected components, have it assembled by the dealer and pay him for the
copy of OS/2 Warp you actually intend to run on it. No Windows tax. BDTD ;-)
Ok, finding that copy of OS/2 Warp might be a bit difficult these days,
especially if you want to run it on current components ...
Now, laptops and complete $BRAND machines were a different matter, true.
But with the exception of laptops the only complete PC I bought was about
20 years ago. All machines since have been bought as parts, some of them
assembled by the dealer.
You're relying on the ruling of a judge who
was found to be prejudiced in
the case and removed? And "steal[ing]" is a pretty harsh word to use in
relation to the pricing policy of a product you were not compelled to buy.
-- Ian
" In addition, Microsoft charges a lower price to OEMs who agree to ship all
but a minute fraction of their machines with an operating system pre-
installed."
For a while, you simply couldn't buy a PC without Windows. Even if you were
going immediately uninstall Windows and install Linux, or Solaris x86, or
OS/2, or BeOS. This directly affected a company I worked for who
bought
commodity PCs to run various Solaris x86 staging and development
environments. The net result of their pricing policy was everyone who bought
a computer was charged for Windows, whether they used it or not. I'd say
that veers into "stealing" territory.
Kind regards,
Alex.
--
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
looks like work." -- Thomas A. Edison