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HP's Windows Bundle Trouble

Posted by Zonk on from the i'm-sorry-please-enter-your-option-again dept.

narramissic writes "A French consumer group has filed 3 lawsuits against HP, saying the company's practice of selling consumer PCs with Windows pre-installed violates a French law that 'prohibits linking the functionality of a product to another product' — not to mention that consumers wind up paying for an unwanted OS. For its part, HP contends that it is not in violation of the law because the OS is integral to the PC. 'The PC without an OS is not a product because it doesn't work,' said Alain Spitzmuller, legal affairs director for HP France. 'We believe the market is for products that work.'"

2 of 697 comments (clear)

  1. Also, A DVD player without DVD is not a product... by GodWasAnAlien · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A DVD player without a DVD is not a product, because it doesn't work...
    A DVD player without a TV is not a product, because it doesn't work...
    A toy without batteries is not a product, because it doesn't work...

    While you need to go to a store to buy batteries and DVD for your non-products,
    for an OS, you may not even need to go to the store. You could download one of many free Linux (or BSD or other) OS's many of which do not even need to be installed to function.

    Perhaps batteries are not the best comparison.

  2. Re:He's an idiot by jlarocco · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So? His statement is still false.

    Even if you make the assumption that the OS is a required part of the computer, there's still no reason they should only bundle Windows. They offer a variety of case designs to choose from. nVidia or ATI graphics cards to choose from. AMD or Intel processors to choose from. So why no choice on operating system?

    --
    Maybe not