impengo's Journal: M$ Tax prevents me from voting with my feet:

Not that this is news, but I have never written about it before: The Microsoft tax is preventing me from voting against Vista with Dell, Gateway or anyone else. (I hear Dell also bought Alienware.) Dell sells "Linux Boxes," with Ubuntu installed, but they sell at the same price as a Vista Box, just that M$ gets paid and Ubuntu doesn't. So if I buy an Ubuntu (linux) Box from Dell they pay M$ for a copy of Vista whether I ask for Vista or not. This is part of Dell's (and that of other PC vendors') contract with M$... if they don't agree to M$'s terms, they don't get to put Vista OEM on anything they sell. My options appear to be Walmart or Whitebox. Walmart sells clothes, but not suits. Likewise, I am sure they sell PC's but not the cat's meow. That leaves me planning a new whitebox for my next PC. I am offended by the short circuit M$ has contrived for the market feedback mechanism. When I hear that Vista is going to be with us for a while, I am bummed. Apple is a legit choice, but EXPENSIVE? Ubuntu works for me b/c Open Office is good, and WINE works well even for gaming.