Re: Woohooo! Dell + Linux

[cga2000 <cga2000@optonline.net>]

On Fri, Mar 30, 2007 at 04:01:41AM EST, Max Hyre wrote:
>    Dear Debianistas:
> 
> John Hasler wrote:
> > The manufacturer may be paying Microsoft a fixed fee for
> > every machine he ships rather than for every copy of
> > Microsoft Windows he ships.  This makes sense when nearly
> > every machine has Microsoft Windows installed.
> 
>    Precisely.  But the sense is inverted.  Nearly every
> machine has a copy of MS Windows installed because the
> manufacturer pays a fixed fee for every machine shipped.
> 
>    When this whole thing started to snowball (as in when MS
> had gotten a solid foothold by selling MS-DOS for lots less
> than the P-system or CP/M-86) MS made an offer no one in
> her right mind could refuse.  Their per-hardware-unit-sold
> license was so much cheaper than the per-OS-copy-sold
> license that it made no sense to do anything else.  Thus,
> any system sent out already had the cost of MS-DOS (later MS
> Windows) built into its price.  Hence, remarks about the
> ``Microsoft Tax''.

without "representation" ..

So when's our Boston Tea Party?

Thanks,
cga