[ALUG] Cheap Dells

[mbm]

A guy I know at Symantec told me that Dell (in common with other volume
box shifters) receive a subsidy from the suppliers of products such as
AV, firewalls, etc which they pre-install on the windows boxes. The
logic here is that the punter will normally sign up to use the
pre-installed "freebie" when the initial licence period expires. Thus
the third party company (Symantec or whatever) gains market share while
the box shifter gets a subsidy.

There is not a mature enough "market" in such products in the Linux
world so we end up with the anomalous situtation where a Linux
installation actually costs the box shifter money - despite the cost of
the MS install.

Mick

>From: MJ Ray <mjr at phonecoop.coop>
>Subject: Re: [ALUG] Asus Eee pc 4G
>To: main at lists.alug.org.uk
>Message-ID: <475d4a23.4BrVmz4rdyG4m5/F%mjr at phonecoop.coop>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

>Barrys linux mail <bazubuntumail at tiscali.co.uk> wrote:
> >   Dell now do linux machines maybe others will follow.

>I've read (and I think I checked when a family friend was after a new
>laptop) that it's cheaper to buy a Dell Windows machine of the same
>spec than to buy one of their Ubuntu machines.  Also, you can try for
>the Windows tax refund.

>So, that makes me wonder if Dell are either:-
>a. market-testing the gullibility of Ubuntu users;
>b. looking to say "well, demand wasn't as high as predicted" when they
>accept the Microsoft shilling to become an exclusively Windows vendor.

>Paranoid or experienced?