Comment expectations (Score 1) 155
Admittedly, you may not have wanted to have an automatic transmission or power windows on your new car; these are options, not mandatory features. If you had made a point of it to your car dealer, you most likely could have gotten the same car with a manual transmission and no power windows.
Imagine if you will a world where every car came with square wheels, which the manufacturer puts on because Microsquare tells them that the car cannot run without them.
You can go out and buy round wheels, but you will still be stuck with the square ones, and the auto manufacturer may refuse to service the car if you bring it in with the round wheels on it.
In addition, there are loads of free accessories for the round wheels, but any accessories for the square wheels must be purchased either from Microsquare, the car manufacturer, or an authorised Microsquare reseller. (Oh, and some of the accessories for the square wheels won't work, even though they are made by Microsquare.)
My point here is that there are many venues where we are presented with "choices that are not choices"; try going to Burger King (corporate slogan: Have it your way) and order a Big Mac. They not only will not give you a Big Mac, they will probably ask you to leave.
Here you are presented with the option of choice (you can supposedly have it you way, whatever that is) yet the choices are limited to what the coproration tells you are your choices. Microsoft eliminates the element of choice in that there are no other options available to you at the time of purchase. Microsoft says that Be, Inc. is a competitor of theirs, but when was the last time you went into a computer store and saw a wall full of machines runnign BeOS? Never, because (while BE has a great OS, and may become a threat to MS) Be does not bundle their OS with any hardware. If you want to go out and buy a commercially manufactured Intel box, you are s-t-u-c-k STUCK with Windows, period.
Imagine if you will a world where every car came with square wheels, which the manufacturer puts on because Microsquare tells them that the car cannot run without them.
You can go out and buy round wheels, but you will still be stuck with the square ones, and the auto manufacturer may refuse to service the car if you bring it in with the round wheels on it.
In addition, there are loads of free accessories for the round wheels, but any accessories for the square wheels must be purchased either from Microsquare, the car manufacturer, or an authorised Microsquare reseller. (Oh, and some of the accessories for the square wheels won't work, even though they are made by Microsquare.)
My point here is that there are many venues where we are presented with "choices that are not choices"; try going to Burger King (corporate slogan: Have it your way) and order a Big Mac. They not only will not give you a Big Mac, they will probably ask you to leave.
Here you are presented with the option of choice (you can supposedly have it you way, whatever that is) yet the choices are limited to what the coproration tells you are your choices. Microsoft eliminates the element of choice in that there are no other options available to you at the time of purchase. Microsoft says that Be, Inc. is a competitor of theirs, but when was the last time you went into a computer store and saw a wall full of machines runnign BeOS? Never, because (while BE has a great OS, and may become a threat to MS) Be does not bundle their OS with any hardware. If you want to go out and buy a commercially manufactured Intel box, you are s-t-u-c-k STUCK with Windows, period.
