__/ [ Alias ] on Tuesday 27 February 2007 02:28 \__
> arachnid wrote:
>> On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:12:09 -0500, Mike Hall - MS MVP Windows Shell/User
>> wrote:
>>
>>> The last time that Dell played with Linux on regular boxes was a similar
>>> response to calls at about the time that XP was in the same situation as
>>> Vista is in now.. Dell dropped Linux like a hot potato on anything other
>>> than servers,
>>
>> "Hot Potato" is apt. Dell's advertising campaign was just getting started
>> when it suddenly went amost totally silent and the Linux order page got
>> buried so deeply on their website that even people who knew they now sold
>> Linux machines couldn't find it.
>>
>> We don't have to look far to find a likely suspect. Microsoft is
>> historically extremely aggressive towards OS competitors and has been
>> known to bribe or threaten OEM's to keep competitors off OEM machines:
>>
>> :
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/03/19/microsoft_killed_dell_linux_states/
>> :
>> : The States' remedy hearing opened in DC yesterday, and States
>> : attorney Steven Kuney produced a devastating memo from Kempin, then
>> : in charge of Microsoft's OEM business, written after Judge Jackson
>> : had ordered his break-up of the company. Kempin raises the
>> : possibility of threatening Dell and other PC builders which promote
>> : Linux.:
>> :
>> : "I'm thinking of hitting the OEMs harder than in the past with
>> : anti-Linux.... they should do a delicate dance," Kempin wrote to
>> : Ballmer, in what is sure to be a memorable addition to the phrases
>> : ("knife the baby", "cut off the air supply") with which Microsoft
>> : enriched the English language in the first trial. Unlike those two,
>> : this is not contested.
>> :
>> : <snip>
>> :
>> : Earlier memos described that it was "untenable" that a key Microsoft
>> : partner was promoting Linux. Kuney revealed that Dell disbanded its
>> : Linux business unit in early 2001. Dell quietly pulled Linux from its
>> : desktop PCs in the summer of 2001, IDG's Ashlee Vance discovered
>> : subsequently, six months after we heard Michael Dell declare his love
>> : of Linux on the desktop the previous winter.
>> :
>> : Compaq was also mentioned in other memos, with Microsoft taking the
>> : line that OEMs should "meet demand but not help create demand" for
>> : Linux.
>>
>> What exactly might Microsoft have done to Dell to prompt so sudden a
>> retreat? Here's one possibility:
>>
>> : http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/06/10/secret_deals_ms_uses/
>> :
>> : Some of the conditions that Microsoft presented to IBM if it wished
>> : to get a licence for Windows 9x or NT4 were: "adopt Windows 95 as the
>> : standard operating system for IBM: $3 [discount per Windows 95
>> : licence]"; "Windows 95 is the only operating system mentioned in
>> : advertisement", to gain a $1 MDA reduction; and "reduce, drop or
>> : eliminate OS/2", which would be worth a total of $8 in MDA reduction.
>>
>> And from:
>>
>> :
<http://news.com.com/Did+Microsoft+want+to+whack+Dell+over+its+Linux+dealings/2100-1014_3-6153904.html>
>> :
>> : "While this may sound provocative, what counts at the end of the day
>> : is what actually happened," he said. "Looking at subsequent portions
>> : of this e-mail thread, which the plaintiffs chose to exclude from
>> : their exhibits, it's evident that we didn't take any retaliatory
>> : action against Dell. In fact, we very clearly increased our
>> : investment with Dell."
>>
>> So, I wonder if "increased our investment" means "we paid them to bury
>> Linux"? It would certainly be consistent with their behavior with IBM and
>> other OEM's as documented in the DOJ antitrust trial.
>>
>> It would also be consistent with what happened with BeOS. BeOS collapsed
>> after finding it impossible for some mysterious reason to market to OEM's
>> even though their product was doing well on the retail market and
>> receiving rave reviews in the media. They claimed later to have come into
>> information that MS had entered into secret and illegal agreements with
>> OEM's not to put BeOS on their machines. Since the agreements were secret,
>> the OEM's couldn't even tell BeOS why all the money they were spending
>> trying to penetrate the OEM market was a hopeless cause. Based on this
>> information they sued Microsoft who eventually settled out of court for
>> $23 million in return for having the records sealed.
>>
>> There's a brief article on the lawsuit here:
>>
>> : http://siliconvalley.internet.com/news/article.php/3073811
>> :
>> : Previously, Be claimed that in 1998 its Be Operating System was to be
>> : part of Hitachi's pre-installed "dual boot system." Be says Microsoft
>> : was angry with Hitachi's decision and pressured the company with higher
>> : prices for its Windows OS. Any price increase would pressure Hitachi's
>> : margins on each PC, making it more cost-effective to remove the BeOS.
>> :
>> : Also prior to the settlement, Be had said Compaq Computer, now known as
>> : Hewlett-Packard (Quote), had agreed to develop a new Internet appliance
>> : based on the BeOS. In legal documents, Be said the deal fell through
>> : after Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates put negotiating pressure on former
>> : Compaq CEO Eckhard Pfieffer.
>>
>> Due to all the secrecy we can't know anything for sure, but I do know that
>> Dell buried Linux before ever having a chance to see how the market
>> would respond, and I do know that Microsoft has been caught before bribing
>> or threatening OEMs to keep OS competitors off their machines.
>>
>
> Oy vey. That explains why MS thinks they can make end users prove
> they're not a thief not once, not twice, but three times per
> installation or reinstallation and/or hardware changes. They're so good
> at it, most Windows users think "I have nothing to hide" and, like
> robots, happily do it without thinking.
>
> I have hope, though, that the paying public is getting more educated
> about these things and will vote with their pocketbook. Perhaps I am too
> optimistic.
And apparently, Microsoft does this again with Dell. Here's the latest, I
suspect:
Dell takes small steps toward Linux
,----[ Quote ]
| Dell has acknowledged that 83,000 users have urged it to sell PCs with
| Linux pre-installed, but it has fallen short of accepting their suggestion.
|
| [...]
|
| While Dell responded to four other suggestions from the IdeaStorm,
| it chose not to respond to two of the top six requests, one asking
| for the provision of OpenOffice alongside Microsoft Office and one
| requesting that Dell's systems should be offered without an
| operating system for customers outside the U.S. Fifty-three thousand
| users promoted the first suggestion, and 32,000 voted for the
| latter.
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6162164.html
They must have had a little chat with Microsoft, again. Why would they
retract their statement about preinstalled Linux options?
And let's not forget the following:
At Dell, Windows XP Home is $19 less than worthless
,----[ Quote ]
| Latitude D520N Duo (with FreeDOS): $984
|
| Latitude D520 Dual Core (with Windows XP Home Edition SP2): $965
`----
http://danpritchard.com/blog/2007/02/21/dell-winxphome-19-less-than-worthless/
Microsoft Shuts Down Linux 10 Years Ago Says Iowa Attorne
,----[ Quote ]
| Going back now to as early as 1998, Microsoft starts to realize that
| Linux might pose a possible threat, and Vinod Valloppillil, who is
| a program manager at Microsoft, is asked by Mr. Allchin, Jim Allchin,
| to analyze potential strategies for combatting open-source software,
| and specifically Linux.
| His memos are leaked to the press in April -- I beg your pardon --
| in October of 1998 and become known as the Halloween documents.
| And the evidence will be that Microsoft uses its influence in the
| OEM channel, the computer manufacture channel, to make sure that
| end users have a difficult time buying PCs with Linux preinstalled.
`----
http://www.linuxelectrons.com/News/RoundUp/Microsoft_Shuts_Down_Linux_10_Years_Ago_Says_Iowa_Attorney
Microsoft's Dirty OEM-Secret
,----[ Quote ]
| They are, in short the secret to Microsoft's success. And the word
| secret is to be taken quite literally: No OEM may talk about the
| contents of his contract, or he will lose his license, and (assumption)
| likely be sued for breach of contract as well.
`----
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/10/23/13219/110
Jury Hears Microsoft Competition Suit
,----[ Quote ]
| A judge on Friday told jurors they must accept as fact that a
| federal court found in 1999 that Microsoft holds a monopoly over
| computer operating systems and that it restricted computer
| manufacturers' ability to use competing systems.
|
| [...]
|
| She said she'll show that the company used its monopoly power
| to exclude competition and control prices and that it conspired with
| other companies to restrain trade, maintaining what she called a
| chokehold on software competitors and computer manufacturers.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061201/microsoft_trial.html?.v=1
Dell's secret Linux fling [sabotaged by Microsoft]
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/09/dell_linux_china/
Here's a recent one:
Microsoft dirty tricks, part two (Bob Cringely)
,----[ Quote ]
| "So the outside vendor was Hewlett-Packard, one of Microsoft's hardware
| OEMs, which is to say Microsoft's bitch.
|
| The tape disappearance was blamed on HP, which accepted the blame, and the
| employees directly involved kept expecting there to be repurcussions,
| especially legal ones. They expected to be deposed by Burst lawyers. But
| it never happened.
|
| This was, for Microsoft, a perfect ending. ..."
`----
http://www.technologyevangelist.com/2007/02/microsoft_dirty_tric_4.html
Some people respond because they know what's going on beneath the surface:
French consumer protectionists are demanding PCs without preinstalled
software
,----[ Quote ]
| The consumer protectionists of the French organization UFC-Que Choisir
| are demanding of the IT group Hewlett-Packard and the vendors Auchan
| and Darty that they offer PCs without preinstalled software.
|
| [...]
|
| UFC-Que Choisir last year also took action against Sony and Apple,
| taking the two companies to court for allegedly putting their
| customers at a disadvantage through proprietary DRM technologies
| and curtailing their choice of devices.
`----
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/82605/from/rss09
--
~~ Best wishes
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roy pts/4 Mon Feb 26 07:14 - 07:17 (00:02)
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