Re: OFT say you have our attention on M$

On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 18:36:50 +0000, Gordon
<gordon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Chris Croughton wrote:
>
>> Strange then that I can buy 'bare' computers, just not at PC World and
>> the like, for instance from novatech.com (an option on every laptop I
>> checked there -- indeed, it's the top option -- is "I do not need an
>> Operating System pre-installed"). The case for MS 'forcing' the market
>> to buy Windows breaks down because it simply isn't true.
>
> Not /now/ it isn't, but for many years prior to the DoJ case, MS was
> saying to OEMs that if they sold a machine that had an OS on it that
> wasn't Windows, then the cost of *all* the Windows licences to that OEM
> would dramatically increase. Commercial blackmail to sell only machines
> with Windows installed.

No, perfectly legal. Book publishers do it all the time, they give
discounts to places which take a lot of their stock and not to ones
which only take a bit. So do breweries, if you take only the products
from one company they give you a discount, if you diversify you don't
get the discounts. It's called business.

They did, of course, engage in other unsavoury practices, like
deliberately changing their interfaces to break 3rd party software, and
building in detection of other software to cause it to crash or not
install. And they have been (and still are) guilty of distorting
statistics and reports for their own ends (gee, now what other groups
are known to do that? Something about a House?).

Chris C
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: OFT say you have our attention on M$
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