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From: Rui Maciel on 17 May 2010 05:26
Pascal J. Bourguignon wrote:

> It is probably possible, but it will cost you more money.
>
> Because the hard disks are made with MS-Windows pre-burnt. When they
> put the magnetic paint on the aluminium plates, it's already
> configured to read out as MS-Windows.
<snip/>

Snark aside, there is at least a very good reason to purchase a computer that isn't bundled with a
windows license: price.

Although it isn't generally made aware, when someone buys a computer which is bundled with a
windows license, that person is also paying for the license. Those licenses tend to be a tad
cheaper than the licenses which are sold with off-the-shelf install packages but they still cost
quite a lot, an added cost which, considering the typical price of a netbook, gets to be terribly
high.

To put things in perspective, Microsoft Windows refunds tend to be in the range of 30 to 200
dollars. That is, if you purchase a computer which comes bundled with a windows license then that
windows license will increase your computer's price up to 200 dollars. Meanwhile, a netbook costs
from 200 to 300 dollars.

As yet another example, I've purchased a linux netbook for less than 200 euros while the ones that
were bundled with windows were sold for around 300 euros. I'm talking about the same make and
model.

Knowing that, you may ridicule those who wish to avoid paying for a software license that they
will never use. Yet, by doing that you are doing nothing more than declaring that you don't
understand the issue and you don't quite grasp the financial importance of this.


Rui Maciel
From: Pascal J. Bourguignon on 17 May 2010 07:04
Rui Maciel <rui.maciel(a)gmail.com> writes:

> Pascal J. Bourguignon wrote:
>
>> It is probably possible, but it will cost you more money.
>>
>> Because the hard disks are made with MS-Windows pre-burnt. When they
>> put the magnetic paint on the aluminium plates, it's already
>> configured to read out as MS-Windows.
> <snip/>
>
> Snark aside, there is at least a very good reason to purchase a computer that isn't bundled with a
> windows license: price.
>
> Although it isn't generally made aware, when someone buys a computer which is bundled with a
> windows license, that person is also paying for the license. Those licenses tend to be a tad
> cheaper than the licenses which are sold with off-the-shelf install packages but they still cost
> quite a lot, an added cost which, considering the typical price of a netbook, gets to be terribly
> high.
>
> To put things in perspective, Microsoft Windows refunds tend to be in the range of 30 to 200
> dollars. That is, if you purchase a computer which comes bundled with a windows license then that
> windows license will increase your computer's price up to 200 dollars. Meanwhile, a netbook costs
> from 200 to 300 dollars.
>
> As yet another example, I've purchased a linux netbook for less than 200 euros while the ones that
> were bundled with windows were sold for around 300 euros. I'm talking about the same make and
> model.
>
> Knowing that, you may ridicule those who wish to avoid paying for a software license that they
> will never use. Yet, by doing that you are doing nothing more than declaring that you don't
> understand the issue and you don't quite grasp the financial importance of this.

Well, more than ridicule them (since I also suffered the same as a
customer, and almost all the competitors of Microsoft, eg. each (or
99.99% of) the NeXTSTEP and OpenStep systems for intel processors sold
by NeXT Computer Inc. implied a MS-Windows sale for Microsoft, since
it wasn't "bundled" with Dell or HP computers), my point is to ask
whether the cost of a Microsoft license is worth your time to beat it
out of the computer. If you only need to check [x] linux or [x]
without OS on an order form, ok. But otherwise, my time is more
precious than the few euros taxed by Microsoft on all computers in the
world. I agree on the question of principle, it would be better if
bundling computer and software was prohibited, and this goes as well
for Apple and Nokia.


--
__Pascal Bourguignon__ http://www.informatimago.com/
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