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Google and Microsoft Both Want To Stop Dual-Boot Windows/Android Device

Posted by Soulskill on from the partners-in-nope dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The laptop has undergone many changes over the past decade. At various times, netbooks, ultrabooks, and Chromebooks have been en vogue. Over the past several months, we've seen signs of the next step in the laptop's evolution: Android/Windows dual-boot laptops. Several companies have built these machines already, including Asus and its upcoming Transformer Book Duet TD300. However, neither Google nor Microsoft seem to want such an unholy marriage of operating systems, and they've both pressured Asus to kill off the dual-boot product lines. Asus has now complied. 'Google has little incentive to approve dual-OS models, since that could help Microsoft move into mobile devices where Android is dominant. ... Microsoft has its own reasons for not wanting to share space on computers with Google, particularly on business-oriented desktop and laptop PCs that could give the Internet giant an entry point into a Microsoft stronghold. Computer makers that make dual-OS machines risk jeopardizing a flow of marketing funds from Microsoft that are an important economic force in the low-margin PC business.'"

2 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. Forget the customer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So neither perspective or any reason has the customers interests in mind.

    1. Re:Forget the customer by Dcnjoe60 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How is it "an otherwise legal use of the product"? The Windows operating system and the Google Play Store application are copyrighted.

      ASUS wasn't installing illegal copies of the product, they had licenses for both. As such, unless the license states you can't install on a system with any other OS, which it does not, then how was it illegal? I can buy an ASUS with Windows 8 and I can buy one with Android. Evidently, I can't buy one that lets me choose Windows 8 or Android at boot time.

      ASUS conceded, not because of legality, but because of business relationships with the two software giants. If they were dual booting debian and fedora and were told to stop, they would have flipped them a bird because debian and fedora don't heavily influence their bottom line. Microsoft and Google, however, do, and used their vast market power to force ASUS into submission or face the consequences. It's bad enough for one company too big to fail to do it, but for two of them to gang up and do it, seems like the US Justice department should be investigating what happened. Oh, wait, Microsoft and Google already control the USJ department.