bbgruff wrote:
Phil Da Lick! wrote:
Roy Schestowitz wrote:
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Unbundle IE in Europe? Why stop there?
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| My interest here isn't in what Microsoft and the EU agree to as an
| appropriate remedy for Microsoft's market dominance in web browsers or
| past legal transgressions. My interest is in ensuring an increase in
| the global competition in operating system platforms. In short,
| unbundle IE in Europe? Why stop there? Why not unbundle the whole of
| Windows from all OEM PCs shipped in Europe?
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http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10012947o-2000630136b,00.htm
Well that would be extremely difficult for John Q Pleb trying to buy a
PC. What they do need to do is make sure that there are no barriers to
OEMs selling PCs with other operating systems, legal or financial.
Sorry - "Extremely difficult"?
I don't see why.
"Why not unbundle the whole of Windows from all OEM PCs shipped in
Europe?" i.e. sell them bare.
My understanding of the proposal as it stands is that the customer should
not be charged at the point of sale, but rather if he continues to use the
installed OS after a trial period.
ANALOGY:-
Many new Windows PCs come with a trial version of MS Office. It works for
30 days, but after that stops working unless you register it and pay some
money.
And leaves a complete load of crap all over your hard disk that John Q
Pleb wouldn't have a clue about cleaning up. The worst offenders are
anti virus programs - notoriously difficult to fully remove. Anyhow I
was talking about the scenario where PC is sold without an OS and a
choice was neccessary. Judging by some of the conversations I've
overheard in PC World over the years of a windows culture, I go back to
my statement that it would be an extremely difficult choice for John Q
Pleb. It'd be easy for ppl like us of course but that's not the point.
Similarly, at one time, a Windows OS stopped working unless one registered
it, but these days it seems to be "pre-registered" by the PC manufacturer?
All that needs to happen is that one reverts to the above analogy, and the
purchaser pays (separately) for Windows if he decides to continue using it
after a short trial period?
And how many operating systems would you include in this trial system?
How much disk space would you waste in that fashion? Imagine the support
headaches for the OEMs if they had to do all that.
I'd prefer to see a system whereby the PC was sold "bare", and with a
separate install medium (image) for it as a separate purchase, but I'd
certainly applaud the above method.
Ah. That's what I was alluding to. However to reiterate it'd be an easy
choice for an informed user between OSA and OSB but not for plebby.
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