Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 14:20:55 -0700 From: David Johnson <djohnson@acuson.com> To: "SILVER, MICHAEL A" <MSILVER@scana.com> Cc: "'freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org'" <freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: FW: My Experience With FreeBSD Message-ID: <39F74EB7.393A0C8A@acuson.com> References: <DBB3921EFE2AD211A81500A0C9B5FE760579464F@msg04.scana.com>
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"SILVER, MICHAEL A" wrote: > > > Far be it for me to defend Microsoft, but I seriously doubt that they > > actually held a gun to the head to Dell, Packard Bell, IBM, > > Acer, et al, > > forcing them to ship their products with Windows. It does no good > > calling Microsoft evil when it's the computer manufacturer that sells > > the "take it or leave it" systems. > > They held the proverbial gun to their head. Unless the hardware > manufacturer sold windows with *every* PC they would either be prevented > from selling windows at all, or would have to pay unreasonable prices. This > is one of the items the justice department originally went after them for in > 1995. > > ...Michael... I see I've started a war... I'm sorely tempted to take this off the -newbies list, but since I have an innate aversion to disinformation, and also because newbies need to know that we are not about bashing other operating systems, I'll reply. A lower price is not a gun. It was the manufactureres who decided that it was cheaper to buy Windows at a lower price for all machines, than to but it at a higher price for 95% of their machines. Now that there is a significant number of folks who desire other operating systems, the margins are different and you see manufacturers like Dell starting to offer other systems. Deals like this a common in business, large or small. Back when I was a salesman for a tiny building contractor, I would give my customers a discount if I was to be their exclusive vendor. I would even give them a 25% off coupon for their next purchase, so that they wouldn't even think about looking elsewhere. But regardless of the muscles on the 800 pound gorilla, since the first days of personal computers I have been able to purchase computers without Microsoft software. And I wasn't even living in urban areas. I distinctly recall PC-DOS, DR-DOS, and Geoworks preinstalled on computers. I distinctly recall seeing OS/2 offered as an option. Currently you can buy Linux preinstalled on boxes in consumer oriented stores. And of course, computers without *any* OS installed have always been there. David To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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