Buy PC Without an OS... Get a Visit From MSFT? 639
sebFlyte writes "'Don't sell PCs without operating systems or we'll send the boys round.' That seems to be the general message coming out of microsoft's antipiracy unit, according to ZDNet. While MS seems to accept that people might want to get hold of PCs without Windows so they can put Linux on them, they don't think that's a good enough excuse. "We want to urge all system builders -- indeed, all Partners -- not to supply naked PCs. It is a risk to your customers and a risk to your business," says Microsoft. The FSF has given this policy short shrift, saying: "It looks like a private sniffing service which is supposed to spy on these who do not want to pay the Microsoft tax anymore. It is an incredible piece of impudence.""
Build your own (Score:5, Interesting)
Soooo (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Scraping away the FUD... (Score:4, Interesting)
I'd like to see those statistics (if they exist) before I completely dismiss the validity of the article
bullshit.
It looks like this was aimed not at people who sell OEM (bare) as just an option, but people who don't offer Windows licensing at all
Gestapo-ish marketing, yes. Big brother
What? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Here we go again (Score:4, Interesting)
I remember a few years ago there was some kind of talk about 'returning' windows licenses...does that work? did it ever?
I don't see me buying too many desktops anymore - the freedom/power to cost ratio is low enough that I foresee all my future computers being laptops, and my last one came with XP on it...so even though FC5 will go on it shortly, I still paid the M$ tax...
anyone?
Microsoft engages in foul play even here on /. (Score:4, Interesting)
Check it out. . .
I know the guy who posted this Slashdot comment [slashdot.org] on how prominent Forbes writer, Daniel Lyons, a suspected SCO puppet, was asking leading questions of Balmer at Microsoft's request in a recent interview slamming Linux.
Through fluke, my friend managed to get first post. He was also posting with some respectable Slashdot Karma. What happened next was fascinating. . .
His post became the focus of a moderation tug-o-war. No big deal. Happens all the time on Slashdot. --I've posted hundreds of items which piss people off, and I've watched my posts fly up and down on the venerable, "Troll" to "Insightful" Slashdot scale. Except, I cannot ever claim to have invoked more than, at most, say 8 or 9 mod points from the Slashdot moderators.
carsonc [slashdot.org]'s post however. . . Wow.
We were chatting a few days later and he described the scenario to me. It seems that, lickety-split, after his post had gone up, a group of somebodies had gone into his posting history and spent a lot of mod points hammering several of his recent posts from 2's down into -1's. They spent, we estimate, at least 25 mod points worth of specific attention on him. Despite the fact that regular Slashdot moderators eventually won the tug-o-war, leaving his comment in the rarefied air of +5, his Karma had nonetheless dropped so quickly from history moderation, that he was left prevented from posting more than two comments per day, (effectively stopping him from engaging in open forum debate on the very topic he'd launched), and assigning an automatic -1 to everything he might say thereafter.
Yeah, yeah. Big deal. Slashdot Karma wars do exist on the level of schoolyard nonsense, but in this case. . .
A group of somebodies with 25 mod points to blow on a moment's notice? Well that raises interesting questions! Judging by the otherwise bland nature of carsonc's post, which I can't think could possibly have inspired anybody to have such intense emotional reaction and thus mod negatively, --unless they were directly affected by his comments, I can only surmise that it was either. . ,
A) Unwholesome Slashdot editors. --Which, considering Slashdot's fairly clean history of moral conduct over the years, I think is unlikely in the extreme.
or. . .
B) A band of Microsoft employees who had been directed to acquire mod points on Slashdot to be used at the whim of Microsoft's PR department precisely when negative views circulating around delicate points in the news might harm them. And as mod points are not given every day, how many users exactly, does it take to have 25 mod points available at a moment's notice? Enough to require some paid coordiation, I'd say.
Some might cry, "Conspiracy!" and wag their heads like dolts. But with several 1000 employees plugged into the Microsoft cube. . .
Anybody who has seen the film, "The Corporation" [imdb.com] knows that such a scenario is not just possible, but -extremely- likely.
In other words. . . Fuck Microsoft. Switch to Linux. Tell everybody to do so now. Ubuntu [ubuntu.com] will mail you 5 disks for free, and they'll support them, for free, for 3 years.
-FL
Re:Volume licensing (Score:1, Interesting)
This grinds my gears (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't need an excuse. If I was going to buy a computer, I want to buy the hardware, and not be forced to shell out money for software they want to give me if I don't want it. I can't believe they think that OS-less computers are all potential machines to have pirated Windows on it. Honestly the point of getting no OS is just that, to have nothing there; why waste the money on the OS if you're going to erase it anyway? Also, maybe I would buy a computer without an OS because I don't want Windows, period. This has antitrust written all over it, may they burn and die a painful death for all I care. And all I wanted was a laptop with an nVidia card, an AMD CPU, and no OS. I can't find any one laptop with even two of those criteria! (Not blaming MS for this though.)
well, I checked his history... (Score:5, Interesting)
As to MS employees being a reason he was boned, I have to say that's not too far-fetched to me. But really, I'd have more sympathy if slashdot weren't so consistently off the handle in relation to MS. I mean, it's pretty easy to get a smack even for reasonable opinions about MS and SCO. And his slight wingnuttiness doesn't help much.
It's still seems unfair. Maybe meta-moderating can fix this eventually?
Lets wait and see what happens when... (Score:3, Interesting)
The solution is simple (Score:2, Interesting)
There's a simple solution for vendors wishing to sell PCs without an OS installed:
"Our default operating system is Linux. Customers who wish to have Windows pre-installed may choose to do so for an additional fee. Since we realize that many of our customers will choose Windows, we always maintain a sufficient stock of Windows pre-installed machines to enable a customer to pick one up with no waiting."
Or, make your default OS FreeDOS and give customers the option of Linux at no extra charge or Windows for a fee.
Or, if the traffic will bear it, sell them all for the same price, which will boost the profit margin tremendously on Linux machines (note: this might piss off Microsoft).
Enterprise customers pay for OS twice (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Big Deal! (Score:3, Interesting)