[Bradford] Blog: Amazon UK and the Microsoft Tax

[Brian]

Good point John. I like your definition too David. I was 
fitting up an additional WiFi point for a relation and was also supposed to get a  old XP laptop working with it. It ran reaaaaly slow despite a fast single core CPU and an upgrade to 2GB memory. It had also been 
defregged & scanned for viruses. There was the Microsoft WiFi set up then a Belkin WiFi setup. It just wouldn't play ball at all. Meanwhile 
my eeePC, running Xubuntu, worked just fine, as did my Galaxy S3. 
Normally I say no to people who want me to do Windows stuff - "I'm not 
your man - try someone who does Windows". 

I follow it by  asking what they use their computer for and, if appropriate, offer to put a Linux distribution on for them.
This is a bit of a risk because it might be that the WiFi or the camera doesn't work but, fortunately, I have always been lucky in that I've got it all to work.Brian


________________________________
 From: David Carpenter <david.carpenter at nornir.co.uk>
To: John R. Hudson <j.r.hudson at virginmedia.com> 
Cc: "bradford at mailman.lug.org.uk" <bradford at mailman.lug.org.uk> 
Sent: Thursday, 6 December 2012, 9:29
Subject: Re: [Bradford] Blog: Amazon UK and the Microsoft Tax
 
Whenever I spend time doing something horrendous with someone else's
Windows machine, like updating, installing software that requires
registration, virus checking, rebooting, uninstalling stuff to make it
work again, etc etc I always refer to that as the Microsoft tax - the
amount of time spent on a Windows computer being unproductive.

David

On 6 December 2012 08:33, John R. Hudson <j.r.hudson at virginmedia.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 2012-12-06 at 01:22 +0000, x-ric at brucenetworks.com wrote:
>> On 06/12/2012 01:04, Brian wrote:
>>
>> > My definition: Microsoft Tax - Being compelled to pay for a
>> > Microsoft OS that you don't want when you buy a computer.
>> > I found this blog which catalogues how Amazon UK have so obviously
>> > dragged their heels when they have been requested to refund the
>> > Microsoft Tax.
>> > Shamazon: why Amazon UK suck
>> > http://www.samnazarko.co.uk/
>> > Sam Nazarko is also known for:
>> >  http://www.raspbmc.com
>> >
>> > morning
>> > It's the manufacturers sweet deals with microsoft the trick here
>> > you may see this end shortly given they screwed them with
>> > starting to make there own hardware.
>> >
>> > rich
>> >
> There was an interesting piece in LXF by Michael Meeks explaining how
> OEM suppliers supplement their profits with virus, media and other
> programs they include for which they get a percentage if the purchaser
> upgrades to the paid version.
>
> So putting Windows on hardware is a way of increasing profits per unit
> which doesn't exist with Linux. I know this doesn't strictly relate to
> getting back the Windows tax but it illustrates that the situation is
> not as straightforward as it might appear.
>
> John
> --
>
>
>
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