____/ The Ghost In The Machine on Wednesday 31 October 2007 15:16 : \____
> In comp.os.linux.advocacy, chrisv
> <chrisv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote
> on Wed, 31 Oct 2007 07:11:27 -0600
> <kkvgi3d6dhp26ohmjst4s3v4a3q6c079i2@xxxxxxx>:
>> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>
>>>I think part of the pain these retailers feel is
>>>a result of Microsoft's channel-stuffing (plenty
>>>of references posted to COLA, some appended again
>>>below), which was only possible due to hype, generated
>>>by IDC's 'shill study' on Vista and the ecosystem.
>>>A $500,000,000 marketing budget played a role as
>>>well (the budget has run out by now, I suspect),
>>>so Microsoft was happy to boast 88,000,000 'sales'
>>>of Vista. Sadly, all these 'sales' are sitting there
>>>doing nothing in the warehouses of large chains, which
>>>get nothing but a pain and an overdraft. Those that get
>>>sold usually get replaced by XP or Linux anyway.
>>
>> There was a Dell ad in yesterday's local newspaper, with two machines
>> - one laptop, on desktop - and both were being offered with the choice
>> of XP or Visduh.
>>
>
> Dell's record is decidedly mixed here.
>
> The Inspiron 531s is only offered with Home Basic (it's
> a cheapie $349 unit, so this isn't too surprising -- though
> one wonders what happened to the $199 units with Linux
> on them that Walmart offered at one point).
>
> The Inspiron Advanced (??) 530 includes options for
> Windows XP, as well as Windows Vista Home Premium; the
> 531, however, only offers Vista Home Premium. The XPS
> 210 all have the XP option; the XPS 420 only comes with
> Vista Home Premium. The XPS 720 all have the XP option,
> as well as Home Premium.
>
> And Dell is playing a few more interesting games; the
> cheapest unit with preinstalled Ubuntu is the Inspiron
> 530N, at $549 -- and one has to pull down "Open Source
> Desktops" from the blue menu and then click the Ubuntu
> button to get to it. The cheapest FreeDOS unit is even
> more expensive: $599 for a Inspiron 531s Open Source,
> and for some reason the 531s is positioned to the *right*
> of the 530s unit in the content lineup. (Since 'Murkins
> read left-to-right and might assume cheapest is at the left
> [certainly I do!], this appears a little misleading.)
>
> I'd have to look into the details (presumably, the Open
> Source desktops have higher performance and/or memory)
> but this is weird on the surface.
>
> The message is interesting. Apparently somebody complained
> about the "Dell recommends", so now we get the cheery,
> though somewhat logical, reminder that
>
> "Note: Dell does not support non-Dell installed operating systems."
>
> I'm curious as to why these prices. Is it:
>
> [a] that Dell has excess inventory in the preinstalled Vista
> items, and wants to get rid of them at a lower price?
>
> [b] that Microsoft is giving Dell a discount for every
> preinstalled Vista box sold?
>
> [c] that Dell's contract assesses a punitive premium
> on every *non*-Vista box sold?
>
> [d] that Dell assumes that Linux requires good-quality
> merchandise, and that customers will pay more for good
> quality merchandise?
>
> [e] that Dell subcontracts the actual machine construction
> and software loading to outfits in China, Japan,
> Korea, India, and Mongolia, and that there are more
> Vista loading companies out there than those willing
> to load Linux and FreeDOS?
>
> [f] none of the above?
>
> OK, so I'm a tad paranoid today. :-)
Microsoft OEM LICENSE AGREEMENT
FOR MINIMUM COMMITMENT PAYMENTS
#2811-7060 dated march 1, 1997
with DELL COMPUTER CORPORATION
http://edge-op.org/iowa/www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/2000/PX02663.pdf
--
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | Get the most out of your hardware. Get Linux.
http://Schestowitz.com | RHAT GNU/Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
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