Dell No Longer Selling Systems w/o Microsoft OS

Some Sys Admin sent in an email that he got from Dell which basically says Microsoft will no longer allow Dell to sell PCs without an operating system. Please note that Microsoft is not a monopoly, and does not use their monopoly power to squish competition in the market place. The message itself is attached below, and is worth a read, especially the last bit.

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.

Comments

the judge will not know

[Lewis Mettler, Esq.]

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.

Re:Monopoly

[Sj0]

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)

'No OS' still an option for servers.

[redbeard_ak]

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.

Re:I see this two ways....

[jpmorgan]

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.