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Re: [News] Windows Sells Due to Market Deadlock

In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Roy Schestowitz
<newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
 wrote
on Thu, 09 Nov 2006 15:59:49 +0000
<2511922.3RIt7jfVWB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> Linux rises, but Vista still rules
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Looking for a cheap PC this holiday season? Good luck trying to find one 
> | with anything but Windows on it.
> | 
> | That's odd. Linux is more popular than ever, Apple is resurging, and 
> | Microsoft's efforts to put Windows Vista on store shelves have been hobbled 
> | by delays. You'd think consumers would have more choice as the holiday 
> | season kicks off.

They do.  One can either buy a machine ready to run Vista
or buy a machine with a Vista-ready beta (if one's part of
a corporate beta, presumably).  That's two platforms right
there; therefore Microsoft is not a monpoly and everyone
should be happy.

</sarcasm>

> | 
> | [...]
> | 
> | While Microsoft can't punish companies for selling rival operating
> | systems, machines with anything but Windows installed don't help PC
> | makers meet the quotas necessary to pay Microsoft lower rates.
> | 
> | "Microsoft doesn't leave much room for negotiation," says Citigroup
> | analyst Brent Thill. Nor does it have to.
> | 
> | What if Linux went luxe?
> | 
> | Hewlett-Packard could, in theory, save some money upfront by putting
> | Linux on 10 percent of the desktop PCs it sells at retail. But that
> | would just make the rest of its Windows desktops more expensive,
> | because it would no longer be selling as many Windows licenses as
> | archrival Dell, and Microsoft could legally charge it more.
> | 
> | HP, which recently overtook Dell the world's largest PC maker, can't
> | afford to hand its vanquished rival any cost advantages.
> | 
> | In a nutshell, switching to a rival OS system will hurt more than 
> | help the bottom lines of PC makers. The straightforward economic
> | scheme that regulators set up to keep Microsoft in check is
> | essentially keeping the PC industry in the Windows fold - just as
> | Redmond's brass-knuckle tactics once did.
> `----
>
> http://biz.yahoo.com/hbusn/061109/110106_microsoft_vista_biz2.html?.v=1
>
> Someone ought to step in and supervise. This leads to a monopoly that hurts
> the customer (poor service/product, high prices).

I'll admit I don't know what could be done at this point except to
forbid product bundling, and that could open up quite a few cans of
worms as it is far from clear that the prohibition should only be
restricted to complex electronic equipment.

-- 
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
GNU and improved.

-- 
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