On Thu, 4 Nov 2004 10:04:14 +0000 Tim Green timothy.j.green@gmail.com wrote:
On Thu, 4 Nov 2004 10:38:09 +0100, Wayne Stallwood aluglist@digimatic.plus.com wrote:
On Thursday 04 November 2004 8:57 am, tom potts wrote:
Anyone know where I might be able to purchase a new laptop/notebook with Linux installed so M$ get none of my money? Preferably from this little backwater of a country but EU would do at a push Tom
This is why nobody should ever buy boxed Microsoft Operating Systems, they are worthless because it's almost impossible to buy a "clean" computer to install them on. Case in point, I wanted a new laptop earlier in the year settled on a Thinkpad, however despite the fact that I own a boxed and licensed copy of Windows 2000 I was forced into purchasing Windows XP as part of my chosen laptop's package.
And that is why we call it the Microsoft Tax.
...and a right PITA it is too even if you want a new machine *with* a Microsoft OS. The hassle I have trying to explain to customers that want a new machine that even though they have a copy of Windows 98 and Office 97 that they are quite happy to continue using, they are not allowed to and I am forced to sell them new copies of the software at a higher cost than the hardware they are purchasing. Add to that the problems when you explain that because they have been forced to purchase a new OS this will have to be Windows XP, which in turn will force them to upgrade some of their other software because it won't work with the newer version of Windows. In some cases this has a knock on effect on the server side software being used for an (e.g. accounting) package, which will then force an upgrade there too. This will then force upgrades of the client software on the other machines, which may not be capable of running the new client without a hardware and OS upgrades themselves. One failing machine could force a major upgrade of the whole system simply because of Microsoft's licensing policy - very, very nasty!