[Wolves] Re: MS tightens the screw

Peter Cannon peter at cannon-linux.co.uk
Fri Apr 7 13:19:19 BST 2006


On Friday 07 April 2006 12:38, Peter Evans wrote:

> With that said the fact that if you choose to supply competing products
> from two vendors means that one of those two vendors then changes the way
> they choose to deal with you is perhaps predictable.  If the two products
> were equal I'd expect there to be a scheme where the re-seller gets an
> increasing benefit from selling one flavour of product that the other.
>  That's the basis of competitive pricing I believe.

Hm, if only, nearly every vendor we deal with not only wants to give you as 
little as possible they also look for ways to make money directly from you.

Compaq was the worst, you HAD to attend training sessions which cost in most 
cases £1000.00 a time, Acer originally had a good one, you had to buy a 
Server, Workstation and Laptop for demonstration purposes, They've ditched 
that one thank goodness.

> Now how does that work if the competitive product is free?  

Careful a lot of people do not understand what free means, when you use the 
word free they immediately think it costs nothing, ziltch, freemans.

Just to make it clear for any non members reading this thread I think you are 
talking about restriction free.

> In the 
> commercial market I would then be looking at the competing support
> offerings - and this is confusing enough for the people that deal with it
> full time in Enterprises so god help the SME market.  For the domestic
> market it's not relevant - who out there buys a home desktop with any o/s
> support over what the machine vendor supplies?

If you buy any Linux boxed product there is support, maybe for a limited 
period but support all the same.

> To the enthusiast there's actually a benefit to buying a non-OEM license in
> that it's yours to put on whatever you like (one at a time of course :)),

That's not true you are now supposed to remove the sticky security code key 
label and put that on the base unit. In theory if you try and remove that 
label it tears which then makes it invalid.

> with the OEM it's tied to the rig that you bought it with.  Quick aside -
> did they ever figure out when an OEM license becomes invalidated: when you
> change the CPU or hard drive or any combination thereof?

Nope that's classed as an upgrade which is OK you can even buy a keyboard and 
mouse which is classed as an essential component and you're covered.

> To be clear - I'm not consciously acting like a Troll, or cause an
> argument.

You have valid points this, so far, has been an intelligent discussion and not 
a slanging match I for one welcome your comments good or bad its the only way 
we learn and expose.

Keeping our mouth shut in case we upset someone only lets the despots of this 
world into our lives.

-- 
Regards
Peter Cannon
FC5 & SuSE10
Jabber:highwayman.turpin at gmail.com

"There is every excuse for not knowing
 There is no excuse for not asking"



More information about the Wolves mailing list