[Gllug] Re: restrictions (Was..Gates to get knighthood)

[Richard Jones]

On Sat, Mar 05, 2005 at 01:47:53PM +0000, Christopher Currie wrote:
>  Richard Jones <rich at annexia.org> wrote
> > The same situation actually prevails today, although it appears that
> > the agreements are now merely informal.  Dell, for instance, gets
> > plenty of kickbacks from Microsoft for shipping Windows on Intel only.
> > The kickbacks are now called marketing incentives, but the same
> > situation applies.
> 
> I notice that Dell's advertised PCs are sold with 'Windows XP Home Edition', 
> but 'Dell recommends Windows XP Professional'.

If you look at a few OEM websites, you'll see "Company X recommends
Windows XP [Professional]" splattered prominently across the pages.

For instance, Tiny are advertising the following LINUX-BASED PC.  Look
at the tagline across the top of the page:

http://www.tiny.com/packages.php?prodid=13675

Here's an HP laptop which can come with Linux installed.  Note the
tagline:

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/321957-64295-89315-321838-f33-395654.html

Dell don't really sell anything OTHER than Windows, but they still
blare out the same message:

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/default.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

The reason why.  Microsoft pay them to say this ...

http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/windows/story/0,10801,95797,00.html

  "Microsoft also pays Dell if the computer maker recommends Microsoft
  Windows XP Professional. I found the recommendation on almost all of
  the Web pages I visited at Dell's site. Why does Dell tie its fortunes
  so closely to Microsoft? Because the deal makes Dell lots of money."

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones, CTO Merjis Ltd.
Merjis - web marketing and technology - http://merjis.com
Team Notepad - intranets and extranets for business - http://team-notepad.com
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