Phil Da Lick! wrote:
> bbgruff wrote:
>> Phil Da Lick! wrote:
>>
>>> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>>>> Hash: SHA1
>>>>
>>>> Unbundle IE in Europe? Why stop there?
>>>>
>>>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>>> | My interest here isn't in what Microsoft and the EU agree to as an
>>>> | appropriate remedy for Microsoft's market dominance in web browsers
>>>> | or past legal transgressions. My interest is in ensuring an increase
>>>> | in the global competition in operating system platforms. In short,
>>>> | unbundle IE in Europe? Why stop there? Why not unbundle the whole of
>>>> | Windows from all OEM PCs shipped in Europe?
>>>> `----
>>>>
>>>>
>>
http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10012947o-2000630136b,00.htm
>>>
>>> Well that would be extremely difficult for John Q Pleb trying to buy a
>>> PC. What they do need to do is make sure that there are no barriers to
>>> OEMs selling PCs with other operating systems, legal or financial.
>>
>> Sorry - "Extremely difficult"?
>> I don't see why.
>
> "Why not unbundle the whole of Windows from all OEM PCs shipped in
> Europe?" i.e. sell them bare.
imo, Perfect :-)
This is exactly the way that it used to be done.
However, one then had to do the installation oneself - considered easy
enough in 1999, but perhaps not so today (many more "less savvy" users).
Also, a "bare" PC does not lend itself well to testing "out of the box".
It would be nice though to see a set of "disk image" DVDs on sale (free or
almost free for linux), imaged to the specific machine.
That would be my own preferred solution.
>> I'd prefer to see a system whereby the PC was sold "bare", and with a
>> separate install medium (image) for it as a separate purchase, but I'd
>> certainly applaud the above method.
>
> Ah. That's what I was alluding to. However to reiterate it'd be an easy
> choice for an informed user between OSA and OSB but not for plebby.
Exactly so.
However (imo), causing the EU to legislate that way has overtones of the MS
response re. unbundling I.E. - "OK then, we'll sell it in Europe without
ANY browser, and (implied) YOU can take the blame for the customer outcry
that will result"!
If you do it the other way (let the seller install whatever OS he wishes,
but NOT charged at that time - payment after a trial period), most
manufacturers would install a Windows OS at the moment, and that would be
what the vast majority would later buy - at the moment.
The likes of you and me would now NOT pay the Windows tax.
Joe 6-pack is not inconvenienced, makes his choice later (after a trial),
and if he chooses linux or whatever, simply overwrites the whole disk.
Hopefully, manufacturers would even make an image available for some
distribution(s), specific to that model.
Whatever, it COULD be done, couldn't it?
All it needs is the will - and the legislation?
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