Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft to Sell PCs, Starting in India
kripkenstein writes "According to an Ars Technica report Microsoft will begin selling complete PCs, for the first time in the company's history. The program is aimed at customers in India. 'Dubbed the IQ PC, the machines will cost RS21,000 (about $525), are manufactured in partnership with Zenith, and will sport AMD Athlon CPUs. ... In some ways, the move to sell hardware is a natural extension of Microsoft's low-cost Windows initiative ... It may also be a response to projects like Intel's Classmate PC and the OLPC XO.' The Ars Technica summary is careful to state that they seriously doubt this will lead to Microsoft selling PCs in the US, yet the question must be asked: After Microsoft mice and keyboards, then the XBOX and Zune, Microsoft is increasingly becoming a hardware vendor. Is it only a question of time before Microsoft starts to compete directly with the likes of Dell and HP?"
Ha ha haha ha! HAHA HA HA ha ha!!! Tee hee hehe he!!! **
HA ha Ha. Heh. ** **
Muhammad's army of madmen rode out of the deserts of Arabia. They raped/conquered and enslaved the minds of all the people in the area and to this day more than 1.2 billion people have been infected with the mental disease we know as Islam.
I urge my fellow Americans to boycott all Muslim businesses and write your congressmen to stop the billions of dollars in foreign aid to Muslim countries, stop all future Muslim immigration, and BAN ISLAM. Now before you start ignorantly screaming "freedom of religion", Islam is unconstitutional, and let me explain why. Islam is a supremacist political party disguised as a religion, which discriminates against non-Muslims, women and homosexuals. The main goal of this totalitarian system is worldwide domination under Islamic law; and Islamic law is a real fun time: Muslim countries are constantly hanging women for adultery or "honor" and executing homosexuals just for being gay, and murdering Jews just for being Jewish. Women can't vote or equally testify in court and millions of Middle-Eastern Muslim women get their clitoris cut off by the age of 14. Islam is clearly unconstitutional, and if we can't ban it, then we need to change our constitution. The constitution should not be a suicide pact. Don't buy that bullshit that liberals try to sell, saying that Islam is in any way peaceful. People who blow themselves up and mutilate their daughters vaginas are obviously suffering from a mental disease. Islam calls for the subjugation or death of non-believers. Not just Christians and Jews, but all non-Muslims are at danger due to this plague on humanity. Christian schoolgirls get bombed/decapitated in Indonesia, Christian nuns get stabbed and churches burned in Egypt, Buddhists get their heads cut off in southern Thailand, Hindus beaten to death in Kashmir, black Christians castrated and put into slavery in Sudan... the list goes on forever.
In less than 50 years the Army of Muhammad conquered and enslaved people all across Africa to Asia, and even conquered Spain for 800 years. The Arab slave trade was the first slave trade, and even exists to this day in secret in places like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, two "close allies" of the United States.
Muhammad means The Praised One in Arabic. "The Praised One" was under the control of demons for 23 years of his life. Although nobody knows his real name, he is called the "Rasool" or Prophet. He is also referred to as al-insan al-kamil, meaning the perfect man. According to the muslims, their idea of a perfect man was one who raped little girls and decapitated Jews.
Not only was Muhammad a thief, pedophile and a rapist... he was also a mass murderer.
And if you think you can legitimately refute this claim, you are eligible to win $50,000:
http://www.faithfreedom.org/challenge.htm
According to the demon worshippers, "Allah" is the one true God. Now Allah is pretty much Satan, but Muslims have been convinced that he is God. The pedophile and mass murderer known as Muhammad (may pig shit cover him) was a completely delusional psychopath, and Allah was his alter-ego who revealed the Koran to him in a series of revelations. So when Muhammed heard voices in his head, it was the word of God. And the way they eventually wrote it down is said to be the literal words of God. Changing a comma would be blasphemy. Here are some examples of what Muslims consider the actual words of God:
* Make war on them until idolatry shall cease and God's religion shall reign supreme." (8:39)
* "God revealed His will to the angels, saying: 'I shall be with you. Give courage to the believers. I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers!' " (8:12)
* "When the sacred months are over slay the idolaters wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them. If they repent and take to prayer and render the alms levy, allow them to go their way. God is f
ubuntoo iz gud enuff 4 ppl lyke me
Okay, so where is the link for Americans that want to order a handful of these machines for their kids' classes? My kids' school has Windows pc's and is surely willing to accept a few more of them. Why is it that I have to live in a foreign country to get the "cheap pc"? (Yes, I know I can set up Linux, but the school is not ready to admin heterogenous operating systems and I can't replace them all.)
(Begin Rant)
I think that any "Americian" company willing to sell a product a foreign market should be required to make available that product in their home market at the same - or better - price. Although this seems like an off-topic statement, it's applicable because this article is showing the opposite stance. They want to sell a discounted product abroad, but will not offer the item at "home". Blame my mother for this idea, as she is the one that taught me, "Charity begins at home."
Before someone tries to throw out the argument that it's a business decision, may I simply point out that subsidizing "a limited number of retail outlets in Pune and Bangalore" is little different than subsidizing "a limited number of retail outlets in (inner-city of choosing) and (rural district in chosen state)". I would hope that an American company subsidizing an American region should have more "long term" benefit than subsidizing Pune and Bangalore.
Of course, this same principle applies to all merchandise -- consider prescription costs. It makes no sense to me that I have to pay 5X for a drug that sells for X elsewhere, when the producer is not willing to hire me for 5X the the salary. If my company is willing to lay me off in favor of hiring 5 people off-shore, then they should only be allowed to sell off-shore also.
(/End Rant)