begin oe_protect.scr
High Plains Thumper <hpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
>> Mark of the Microsoft Beast
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | If you've looked for a Linux laptop lately on any of the major OEM Web
>> | sites, you've seen it: the mark of the beast. The phrasing goes
>> | "Dell|Lenovo|HP|Acer recommends Windows XP Professional." What it
>> | means is that by virtue of a Microsoft marketing agreement, the OEM
>> | can make more money in the US by not pre-loading Linux than it could
>> | if it did. Things are different elsewhere.
>> `----
>>
>> http://trends.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/07/25/2018237
>
> I find this quote interesting:
>
>| So why do consumers have more freedom of choice in India and elsewhere
>| than they do in the United States? My hunch is that we don't really need
>| to look any further than the mark of the beast. It's because in North
>| America, OEMs get paid by Microsoft not to pre-load Linux, so they can
>| make more money by not pre-loading it than they can by doing so.
>
> That is an anti-competitive practise.
>
Indeed it is. You can see the astroturfers are hard at work, though -
the /first/ talkback claims that the 20-23% of HP customers buying a
linux pre-install are really just installing XP when they get the
machine. For some reason, they seem to prefer a linux pre-install
compared with clean machine... wonder why that would be?
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
The best way to make a fire with two sticks is to make sure one of them
is a match.
-- Will Rogers
|
|
