Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax

From	Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca>
Newsgroups	comp.misc
Subject	Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax
Date	2014-09-12 23:51 -0400
Organization	National Capital Freenet, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Message-ID	<alpine.LNX.2.02.1409122348300.22688@darkstar.example.org> (permalink)
References	<lup494$hpb$1@speranza.aioe.org> <slrnm16f0k.u6.maus@gmaus.org>

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On Fri, 12 Sep 2014, greymausg wrote:

> On 2014-09-10, Hils <hils@saynotospam.net> wrote:
>> (A bit of a rant...)
>>
>> A few days ago I called into my local computer shop. They had some
>> neat-looking, well-specced laptops at a good price, and as my current
>> model is nearly six years old I asked the owner of the shop whether he
>> could supply any without operating systems. His face dropped as he said
>> that he had been unable to find any suppliers of laptops without Windows
>> pre-installed, though he was still looking.
>>
>> Why is this sh*t still happening? For the foreseeable future my working
>> OS will be GNU/Linux or BSD. Why should I have to pay for a Microsoft
>> licence when the first thing I'll do with a new laptop is permanently
>> remove all traces of their unwanted product from it?
>>
>> I should probably take this up with my member of parliament (who
>> supposedly represents both myself and the shop owner), but he's every
>> inch a corporate stooge: the last I heard about him he was still trying
>> to start wars with Syria and Iran.
>
> Well, one point for the shop owners is  that they do not
> have to deal with problems in installing Linux. (Yes, it irritates
> me as well)
>
Of course, out of the box the machine will work with Windows, while some 
details may not be revealed so Linux appears fussier.

There's also the issue that a Windows machine is one of many like it, so 
any configuration can be done once, and then the results copied to those 
fresh hard drives.  Since still relatively few people use Linux, and few 
are willing to spend the money to have it preinstalled, it is like some 
end user fussing over installing Linux on the new computer.  If any work 
needs to be done, it can't be amortized over many computers.  COMpare that 
with a business that has all Linux computers, a new release of the 
distributin they use is about one computer being configured, and then just 
mass install that to the rest of the computers.  The effort for the first 
computer may require some fussing, but the fifty or a hundred are just 
cloned from the first.

   Michael

Thread

The pernicious Microsoft tax Hils <hils@saynotospam.net> - 2014-09-10 10:05 +0100
  Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2014-09-10 09:50 +0000
    Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2014-09-10 10:58 +0100
  Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2014-09-10 12:57 +0300
    Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2014-09-10 19:20 +0000
      Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax Hils <hils@saynotospam.net> - 2014-09-10 23:55 +0100
        Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2014-09-11 08:53 +0000
  Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax mm0fmf <none@mailinator.com> - 2014-09-10 18:00 +0100
    Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2014-09-10 13:25 -0400
      Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax mm0fmf <none@mailinator.com> - 2014-09-10 18:44 +0100
        Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax Hils <hils@saynotospam.net> - 2014-09-10 21:46 +0100
      Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax Anssi Saari <as@sci.fi> - 2014-09-11 11:04 +0300
  Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax Peter Mc Donough <mcd-mail-lists@gmx.net> - 2014-09-10 19:29 +0200
  Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax Whiskers <catwheezel@operamail.com> - 2014-09-10 21:37 +0000
  Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax greymausg <maus@mail.com> - 2014-09-12 20:35 +0000
    Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2014-09-12 23:51 -0400
    Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax Hils <hils@saynotospam.net> - 2014-09-13 08:15 +0100
  Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax Torsten Bronger <bronger@physik.rwth-aachen.de> - 2014-09-13 14:51 +0200
    Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax Peter Mc Donough <mcd-mail-lists@gmx.net> - 2014-09-13 18:08 +0200
      Re: The pernicious Microsoft tax Torsten Bronger <bronger@physik.rwth-aachen.de> - 2014-09-13 18:19 +0200

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