Re: OEM Windows: XP uninstall on 1st computer; Install on 2nd computer

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On Wed, 23 Aug 2006 16:24:09 -0700, Donald L McDaniel wrote:

On Wed, 23 Aug 2006 11:54:35 +0200, --Alias-- <not@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

arachnid wrote:
On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 14:08:57 -0700, Ken Blake wrote:

arachnid wrote:

On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 12:51:06 -0700, Donald L McDaniel wrote:

But when compared with the disadvantage of an OEM license and its
advantage in price, I guess the higher price of a Retail license
would pay over the long-run, while the lower price of an OEM
license would pay over the short-run. So it depends on the state
of one's cash-flow, really.
The problem is that even though you have a full retail license, you
still have to pay for an OEM license with every machine you buy.

Not at all true. There are other computers sold besides those
manufactured by the big OEMs. Almost everywhere, you have the option
of having a system built for you by a small local builder (and no OEM
license is necessary). Even if you live in a small town without sucha
local builder, many of them do mail-order business and will ship.

Or you can build a computer yourself.

Like most people, I don't want a no-name computer built by some
fly-by-night shop and possibly even ordered over the Internet. What I
want is a name-brand system sold by a reputable local retailer that's
been around a decade or two, so if there's a problem I can take it
back and be sure of a refund. It is due to Microsoft's exclusionary
OEM agreements that I cannot obtain such a system minus Windows. If
you even try to claim it's not Microsoft's doing, I'll dig up BeOS and
the earlier antitrust case and any number of current articles.




Um, your motherboard has a manufacturer and, guess what, they have a
warranty. Same holds true for every other component of any consequence
that goes into making a computer. Dell, HP, et al, make more money on
the crap they bundle with Windows than they do from you so guess who
they are beholding to? Hint: it's not you. You'd be better off building
it yourself or getting someone who knows what they're doing to build it.

Alias

Good advice. But of course, many people do not have the necessary
skills (or time, or friends with the necessary skills and time) to build
their own PCs. Which is why they purchase pre-built machines.

I've known *many* nontechnical users who bought their machines from the
corner dealer thinking they had something ultra-high-powered and bleeding
edge, when it was two-year-old hardware and cheap no-name parts. Look
through the WGA gripes in this group and you'll notice an inordinate
number of them come from people who bought their computers from corner
computer stores and ended up with a pirated Windows.

Nontechnical people are at least experienced enough to know they are
better off dealing with respected retailers and known brand names. Fierce
competition for shelf space and the retailer's aversion to angry customers
and large numbers of returns tends to keep things honest, and I've never
yet seen a one-off computer beat the sale price of an equivalent
mass-produced/mass-marketed system.

Also, more than half of the computers sold in the US now are laptops.
There aren't very many corner computer stores that can build custom
laptops and I wouldn't buy one there anyway because local retail stores
already have them dirt-cheap. However they'd be even cheaper if I didn't
have to pay for a bundled copy of Windows than I don't need or want.

By the way, I don't believe Microsoft HAS any such thing as an
"exclusionary OEM agreement" any more. That was gotten rid of by the
courts when Microsoft was found guilty of monopolistic behavior, if I'm
not mistaken.

Microsoft has been known to build secrecy clauses into their OEM
agreements. In their case against Microsoft, BeOS claimed that secret OEM
agreements like the ones that came to light during the antitrust trial are
what shut down their own access to the market. So how can anyone ever know
whether Microsoft is still doing secret agreements?

What one can do is take a black-box approach, look at the millions of
copies of Windows XP Full being sold versus the total lack of bare PC's
in those same retail stores and via the large respected Internet dealers,
consider Microsoft's history of secret agreements to maintain just this
situation in the past, and deduce that they're still doing it.

OEM producers are now free to install any OS they want. And many do.

In fact, many OEMs will install any OS YOU want on your machine, or none
at all, for that matter.

Maybe if you mail-order or are lucky enough to have one of their outlets
in your city. However you cannot walk into the usual places where most
consumers commonly buy their computers and pick up an Intel-architecture
machine minus Windows.



.

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