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[News] Vista vs. Linux: It's All Down to OEM's, Which Microsoft threatens

Working Tech: A reality check for Vista

,----[ Quote ]
| Judging by the grief that Microsoft is getting over delays in the release
| of Windows Vista, and the buzz surrounding the price it plans to charge 
| for the next generation operating system, you'd think we were all
| hankering to get our hands on this hot new piece of software.
| 
| Don't believe the hype: There won't be lines around the block at
| midnight when Vista hits store shelves early next year, analysts say.
| 
| "I don't expect anyone's going to be camping out at Best Buy waiting fort
| his product," says Citigroup equity research analyst Brent Thill. "I think
| the pace of adoption will be slower than the market expects."
| 
| They can get it for you wholesale
| 
| Microsoft gets more than 80 percent of its $13 billion in annual Windows
| revenue from PC makers, who install the operating system on new PCs. The
| cost of Windows - estimated at around $70 - is included in the price we pay
| when we buy a new PC. The proportion of people who buy copies of Windows
| at retail to install on their PCs is vanishingly small.
`----

http://biz.yahoo.com/hbusn/060908/090706_reality_check_vista_biz2.html?.v=1



Microsoft uses dirty/scare tactics to reverse decisions by OEM's to bundle
Linux. They are known to have intimidated and punished companies for doing
so. HP and Lenovo are among those companies which, without any reason,
conceded and retracted announcements that they would prebundle Linux. This
happened within hours or days, surely as a result of contacts with
Microsoft.

Also worth a mention:

        Red Hat: Microsoft still 'aggressive as hell' 

http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-6078854.html?part=rss&tag=6078854&subj=news

,----[ Quote ]
| ...PC makers remain loyal to (read: scared of) Microsoft.
`----

http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2006/0918/102e.html?partner=yahoomag

Novell's CEO said:

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp is using scare tactics to exert pressure on PC vendors
| not to explore the potential of desktop Linux, according to Novell
| Inc president and COO, Ron Hovsepian
`----

http://www.commentwire.com/article_news.asp?guid=2044AB5A-59CA-4EC3-AD3F-73DF7BC4F8E0

Older messages (from Rex Ballard):

,----
| Microsoft has the additional advantage of maintaining a monopoly
| control of the desktop market. Regardless of what happens after the
| machine is sold, OEMs know that given the choice of purchasing more
| than enough licenses regardless of whether they were actually needed by
| end-users or not, and having too few licenses, with the inability to
| purchase more, and at prices which price the end-product so much higher
| that competitor products that demand would falter, the OEMs negotiate a
| better deal by purchasing far more than they actually need. For
| example, if an OEM expects to sell 10 million PCs, and Microsoft is
| willing to sell him 10 million at $80 per copy, or 15 million at
| $40/copy, purchasing the 15 million copies give a net price of roughly
| $60/copy, which is still superior to the smaller order.
|
| Of course, this quantity discount also gives Microsoft the ability to
| impose some unusual restrictions. For example, Windows must be
| installed on every machine sold. Windows must be the ONLY operating
| system installed on these machines. The OEM is not allowed to make ANY
| alterations to the configuration, including partitions which would
| allow users to install Linux in a separate partition, 3rd party
| software that competes with Microsoft products including Lotus Smart
| Suite, Netscape Communicator, or Open Office/Star Office. The OEM can
| include this software "on the side", and even Linux, but cannot
| preinstall the software.
|
| Failure to comply with any of these terms could result in automatic
| revokation of licenses, which meant that the OEM was back into the
| state of "All Or Nothing", with the option of renegotiating for
| licenses (which may involve additional cash payments and nearly always
| involved additianal restrictions).
`----

---

,----
| http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/10/25/inside_the_ms_trial_part_2/
| 
| Senator Orrin Hatch's judiciary committee became interested in the
| case, and staffer Mike Hirshland soon discovered that Klein didn't like
| Reback. But Dan Rubinfeld, the new DoJ chief economist, agreed with the
| Reback-Creighton analysis and persuaded Klein to issue a broader CID
| (document demand) to Microsoft, which yielded email containing
| Allchin's gloom about how IE could succeed unless leveraged with
| Windows, and the evidence that Compaq' Windows licence would be revoked
| by Microsoft if Compaq used Netscape instead of IE.
| 
| Microsoft would not allow IBM to preinstall Lotus Smart-Suite in their
| machines. There was a "quick install" and the installation media was
| included with the packaging, but the application had to be installed by
| the consumer after market.
| 
| IBM was not allowed to install OS/2 with or in conjunction with Windows
| 95 or any subsequent version of Windows.
`----

---

,----
| http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f216100/216127.htm
| 
|
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft#Criticisms_of_the_case
| 
| http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3423941
| 
| If you can get me a published copy of actual OEM license agreements
| with OEMs such as HP, Dell, Gateway, and Toshiba, you can correct the
| record.
| 
| I have to settle for those references which have been made public, even
| if they are slightly out of date.
| 
| Point of fact, Microsoft has, on at least one occaision, threatened to
| revoke the license of an OEM for an unexpected re-interpretation of a
| clause.
| 
| And by the way, Compaq didn't actually remove IE, they just removed the
| IE Icon from the desktop and modified the registry to make sure that it
| could stay removed.
| 
| Microsoft has also been challenged over several other OEM licensing
| issues which were claimed to have been designed to prevent the
| distribution of Linux (Violating both the settlement and the Appeals
| Court Ruling), but Microsoft has artfully dodged the issue by claiming
| that their actual intent was only to show that other versions of
| Windows were the target. And yet, no OEM currently publishes the Linux
| compatibility of their machines in the same ad content that mentions
| Microsoft Windows.
| 
| I point to a clear cut pattern, and point to actual language in actual
| court cases to suggest that there may be a pattern of protecting the
| monopoly through methods not currently addressed by the current court
| settlement. The court said "you can't interfere with the distribution
| of Linux on PCs". Microsoft has managed to dance under and around this
| ruling.
| 
| This is a common legal tactic. Draft the settlement, then let the
| other party assume that the settlement addresses the spirit and intent
| of the ruling - to get the settlement language accepted. Then use the
| letter of the settlement to circumvent the spirit and intent of the
| law.
| 
| Microsoft's settlement and license language should be mandatory reading
| for anyone considering working for companies like Enron, WorldCom, or
| any Mafia Don.
`----


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