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Dell No Longer Selling Systems w/o Microsoft OS
UPDATES
1. Effective 8/26 - New Microsoft contract rules stipulate that we can no longer offer the "NO OS" option to our customers beyond September 1st. As such all customers currently purchasing a "NO OS" option on either OptiPlex, Precison or Latitude for the express purpose of loading a non-MS OS will have the following options:
1. Purchase a Microsoft OS with each OptiPlex, Precision or Latitude system.
2. For OptiPlex and Precision - purchase one of the new "nSeries" products (offered for GX260, WS340 & WS530 - details in the attached FAQ) that are being created to address a different OS support requirement other than a current standard Microsoft OS.
We must have all "No OS" orders shipped out of the factory by September 1st. The "No OS" legend code and SKUs will be I-coded on 8/19 and D-coded on August 26th to ensure shipment of orders prior to September 1st. FYI - this effects all of our competitors as well.
You can still go to Powernotebooks.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Build Your Own System.. I assume that most /. geeks do anyway.. Generally people who can;t build thier own system will find linux hard to grasp anyway. Linux is cool, don't get me wrong, as (of a week ago) all of my systems run RedHat, but as stated on another /. story, how many of your moms run linux? Or your dopy blonde sister's run linux?
"It's not like your minds are as open as the source you love..." - Me to the majority of Slashdot.
Its interesting, I wonder how long before M$ requires pcs to have windows (ie.. making the bios only to boot into windows or freeze if no windows installed, etc.. it can be done)
may never happen, or it may happen tommorrow.. or M$ might turn out like Worldcom (wouldn't that be interesting?)
This announcement will not have any affect upon the current litigation. At least not the case by the States.
The reason is that all testimony has already been taken.
It is just like the stupid decision by the appellate court that Microsoft did not try to monopolize the browser market. That was clearly incorrect but the court is strapped with the evidence in the case as of the testimony. And as of years earlier, Microsoft only acheived about a 50% market share. And, with those facts before the appellate court, you are likely to get such an opinion.
However, when the AOL case gets to the jury, facts will be completely different. Then 90-95% will be evidence. Very different indeed.
That is a basic problem with the legal system and it is why Microsoft lawyers can lie in public the way they do. Microsoft lawyers lie to the press and to the public based upon old facts that are clearly no longer relevant. But, to the ignorant, it is a sale.
Funny, however, that Microsoft again starts to lie about having a monopoly.
But, they are just a bunch of cheap liars anyway. They have proven that numerous times.
Remember the idiot under oath who told the judge that SUNs JVM was not included with XP because of the GPL?
And, remember the idiot that told the judge that Microsoft will withdraw from the market if it does not like the judgment?
And, remember the three stouges that each claimed they thought removing icons had something to do with commingled code.
Microsoft's lies are not even credable and yet they spit them out to defraud consumers. And, the judges as it turns out.
NexuSys - Linux support by the best
It should probably be noted that this probably does not include PowerEdge servers. While I have never been able to figure out how to get an OptiPlex system without a Microsoft OS, I believe the servers will still offer the no-OS/linux OS option.
I didn't receive the e-mail, but the snippet above does not mention servers and they are usually handled differently.
Debian Hurd is much easier to install than any version of windows. Try it yourself. First format your hard drive and install Hurd. Next format your hard drive again and install windows. I think you will find that you have a much easier time with Hurd. Sad isn't it.
Clickety Click
No it isn't. BeOS is(was) easy. Device drivers auto-detect on bootup(so you can literally remove a hard drive from one computer and place it in another and BeOS won't give two shits), so there's no need to manage anything at all. Installation requires hitting next once(or going through a Windows setup screen, depending on whether you bought it or not--it was free for download). Installing software is just a matter of unzipping it into the home directory(which for the most part, BeOS took care of for you) or using the included package manager(which meant simply clicking on a software package and hitting next). Changing the video mode is a matter of going to the preferences tab in the BeOS menu(which had everything you needed to change there in a standard way).
BeOS was a very user freindly OS, but thanks to practices such as these ones, it never got into any OEM products(though the OEMS wanted them, but Microsoft sent their lawyers around to fix that)
It's been a long time.
If I've already got a windows machine, in theory, why can't I just install the same OS license on the new box and throw away the old one? (I know, scary, but it's what most people do).
Because almost all PC's with Windows preinstalled (whether from Dell or from white box manufacturers) ship with OEM licences. These licence you to run the software on the hardware it was sold on, and no other. They cost about half the price of a full retail licence, but when you replace the machine you have to buy a new license.
At work, we prefer to buy machines without an OS, and then buy full-price Microsoft licenses, so we have the flexibility to upgrade hardware and software independently. Doing it this way the licenses cost more, but you're less likely end up throwing them away...
This company pays only 1.8% in federal taxes
No they don't. M$ pays **NO** federal taxes (and no, I am not making this up).
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
of the Corporate States of America...
That's what I'm buying for my clients.
Here's a link to one of their server config menus.
On the menu is Win2k, Netware and no OS. So MS doesn't have the strength to do this on servers as they do on desktops. That would be my conclusion, as they'll only do whatever they can for their own profit - consumers be damned.
. This sig unintentionally left blank. I meant to put something here, but I'm busy.
No: What I assume he is talking about is that you can take a HD with BEOS on and transfer it to another computer and boot it, if you did this with a window installation and there was any significant difference in the hardware (ie PII System to K6-II system) it wouldn't boot.
What kind of Econ-101 textbook did this come from? Maybe "exploiting economies of scale" is important to some business professor, but real businesses are in business for one reason: to make money. Lots of money.
Whence the term capital-ism?
In any event, I don't care about the motivations of the individual participants within capitalism, I'm talking about why capitalism works.
Using capital more efficiently is based on the idea that the business people are motivated by society's greater good.
No, you're thinking of community-ism (communism). Again, I'm talking practical application, not motivation.
While I don't particularly like greed, history has shown that the economic system based on greed has worked much better than the one based on society's greater good.
I'm a pragmatic individual: if being a money-grubbing bastard tends to improve society overall (and except for a few notable cases, it does), then go for it.
What was so good about BeOS? With no applications, and even fewer drivers than Linux, it had no chance. At least Linux is free software - BeOS was not only proprietary but you also had to pay for it (and the free version was about as usable as a Linux rescue floppy). They had some neat technology, but you couldn't use it because it had almost no applications.
You seem confident that overall cost savings would result from your approach.
Do you suppose there would be enough money left to spec out RAID support on the motherboards, and double up on everyone's drives? (I'm talking RAID 1 here, by the way).
After all, with the exception of laptop computers, the thing that breaks not-quite-as-often as Windows itself are the hard drives -- seems like, Dell or no dell, RAID support on workstations is a boon. Being able to swap a dead drive out during the evening after a failure, without the workstation operator noticing anything was wrong during the day, rocks.
And the only way I know of (please correct me if I'm wrong) to get hardware RAID (please note I said hardware, not software) is by spec'ing a Dell (or equivalent) server as a workstation...or building your own.
What do you think?
Well, according to this, Microsoft paid $1,288,000,000 in income tax on $4,026,000,000 of total earnings in 02q1. That's closer to 32% than 0%, by my calculations.
This isn't news, Dhell has been doing this for a few weeks now. I was talking with some people on wednesday evening about this very topic.
Dell has dropped all their OS-less machines, and now only offer machines with M$-OS pre-installed, at an increased price which can't be negotiated away. Even for their largest customers. Even for corporations with site-license agreements with M$. All because M$ used a carrot-and-stick approach, threatening to remove all discounts unless non-OS options disappeared, and offering a greater discount than H-Paq if they went with a 100% M$ offering.
Dell is fucking freaked by the HP-Compaq merger, HPaq is a giant more scary than even M$. Although everyone in the press is laughing about the mis-match of HP and fuckPaq, Dell and IBM aren't laughing. H-Pucker is huge, and will (already started to) create a nasty price war in the corporate PC industry. One of HPricks competitors is going to go out of business, and you can be sure IBM will most likely survive. So M$ hit Dell hard in the negotiations a few months ago, and now we see the results; make every corp client pay twice for M$ products, or lose the war before even being able to fire a shot.
Doh!ll caved in, and probably are spinning this to their share holders as a great oportunity to increase profit margins over HPhuq.
The sad reality is that there are now lots of corporate clients on M$ license 6.0, where they have already paid per-seat/per-user/per-cockroach for copies of M$-OS. Then when they look at the $$$ amount from Dell, and the same spec machines from and IBM or H-dreck, the costs of that "Pay twice for your OS with every machine" are going to look pretty bad. Dell has phucked themselves over bad this time around, you can bet they aren't going to see any long term profits from this move. The boycott from a very tiny percentage of free-OS freaks isn't going to make a blip in their books, but 50K+ corporations jumping ship in the next 3 years will kill them.
As a very astute industry insider predicted wednesday night over a few beers, "that bitch Carlie may have killed the old HP, but if she secretly carved up the PC market with Bill, then Dell has been doomed from the start"
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
Not true. Simply not true. Read their 10k. They pay no quarterly taxes, so how are they paying them at all? The figure you mention is their total expenses. EBITA and reak earnings for this company are almost the same. So how are they paying taxes? They did pay 1.8% last year, but thats in local and federal taxes and thats straight from them. They get out of it by giving money to charity (gates foundation) through subsidiaries and through accounting tricks. Whats funny is how much money the Gates foundation gets (billions) and how much it distributes (millions). If it was any less efficient Id say it was the red cross.
concerning the Windows OS:
o pt ix_gx240.htm
"Operating system software runs the basic functions of a PC. It controls the user interface, instructs the PC on how to interact with internal and external peripherals, and handles networking with other computers. Dell offers several versions of Microsoft® Windows® operating systems to meet the needs of different users.
It's important to have the appropriate Microsoft Windows operating system factory-installed on your new DellTM system. That way, you are assured that the components and drivers are tested for compatibility and installed correctly. Set-up is minimal - you just boot up and go."
So, they're selling "assurance" that everything works. Sounds like more FUD to me, but people buy into it regularly.
See here and click on "Learn more" about Windows OS:
http://www.dell.com/us/en/bsd/products/minicat_
In April, 1920, Hitler advocated that the party should change its name to the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). Hitler had always been hostile to socialist ideas, especially those that involved racial or sexual equality. However, socialism was a popular political philosophy in Germany after the First World War. This was reflected in the growth in the German Social Democrat Party (SDP), the largest political party in Germany.
Hitler, therefore redefined socialism by placing the word 'National' before it. He claimed he was only in favour of equality for those who had "German blood". Jews and other "aliens" would lose their rights of citizenship, and immigration of non-Germans should be brought to an end. (link)