some huge company comes to them and says "We want to buy the printers so we can depreciate the cost of the physical asset." Of course the cost of replacement parts will be astronomical...
The copyright is enshrined in our history with the noble goal of "encouraging the progress of science and the useful arts." Unfortunately its real goal was to protect the investment in mass manufacure and distribution technology of the Printer's Guild, who controlled the presses - now the the entities who get the most out of copyright haven't created much of anything but plastic and paper - for the same reason. The availability of free content on the Internet is proof positive you don't need an economic incentive to get humans to create. The concept was never true to its goal and has become pretty unworkable in an age where the the "tangible medium of expression" requirement of copyright includes ephemeral media such as RAM and magnetic drives.
Agreed. I didn't start this thread intending to bash Dell. It's the behavior, not the company; I acknowledge that I did a bad job of stating it. I'm typing this post on a Dell XPS 140 laptop that I am very happy with (except for the painted mouse buttons). I likewise build my own boxes but buy laptops. Seems like XP support labor should be cheap as it gets at this point since you have a trained base. I guess what I found so reprehensible is that you actually order the box over the phone and someone tells you they can't sell you what you want when you know they can. The other posts here for the most part have been very informative and thoughtful, but I think that Dell has had 5 years to train their support team to deal with people making the mistakes you indicate - there is obviously still value there, and the support you get - "let's try turning the computer on and off. I think you may have a virus. We will need to reformat your hard disk and use your restore disks to reload your software" are pretty much OS neutral.
Additionally while it is a godsend for the hardware firms to get the higher hardware requirements of Vista, it's a poor excuse - they could only offer Vista ready machines with your choice of OS at no loss to themselves from that standpoint. No one will complain about the extra performance. They will complain when their game or app or whatever breaks because it isn't Vista ready. So not only is it poor customer service it doesn't seem to be good business in terms of generating support calls, unless of course they tell their customers to contact their software provider. I know that will win a loyal customer base.
And MSFT is going to have another new OS two years (not that really I believe that) but it doesn't seem to make sense to upgrade for most folks. Except MSFT and DELL.
He did (checked with our company sysadmin) ; unfortunately he was looking for a low end box for the kids.
I agree that phasing out XP makes economic sense, but I understand there are quite a few apps that still don't play well with Vista - one would hope for some more time before they force the switch on folks.
I'm not cynical as much as I detest a company that puts a software company's interest above the end purchaser; that's just poor customer service.
But hooray for capitalism, he got a better deal and what he wanted from a competitor.
Had a friend who tried to buy a Dell box today. They wouldn't sell it to him with XP on it; only Vista. I can only imagine what kind of deals Dell and MSFT have cut...
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You should thank Susan; at least from her conclusion and your statement we can be reasonably sure that you are not a plant.
some huge company comes to them and says "We want to buy the printers so we can depreciate the cost of the physical asset." Of course the cost of replacement parts will be astronomical...
The copyright is enshrined in our history with the noble goal of "encouraging the progress of science and the useful arts." Unfortunately its real goal was to protect the investment in mass manufacure and distribution technology of the Printer's Guild, who controlled the presses - now the the entities who get the most out of copyright haven't created much of anything but plastic and paper - for the same reason. The availability of free content on the Internet is proof positive you don't need an economic incentive to get humans to create. The concept was never true to its goal and has become pretty unworkable in an age where the the "tangible medium of expression" requirement of copyright includes ephemeral media such as RAM and magnetic drives.
Agreed. I didn't start this thread intending to bash Dell. It's the behavior, not the company; I acknowledge that I did a bad job of stating it. I'm typing this post on a Dell XPS 140 laptop that I am very happy with (except for the painted mouse buttons). I likewise build my own boxes but buy laptops. Seems like XP support labor should be cheap as it gets at this point since you have a trained base. I guess what I found so reprehensible is that you actually order the box over the phone and someone tells you they can't sell you what you want when you know they can. The other posts here for the most part have been very informative and thoughtful, but I think that Dell has had 5 years to train their support team to deal with people making the mistakes you indicate - there is obviously still value there, and the support you get - "let's try turning the computer on and off. I think you may have a virus. We will need to reformat your hard disk and use your restore disks to reload your software" are pretty much OS neutral. Additionally while it is a godsend for the hardware firms to get the higher hardware requirements of Vista, it's a poor excuse - they could only offer Vista ready machines with your choice of OS at no loss to themselves from that standpoint. No one will complain about the extra performance. They will complain when their game or app or whatever breaks because it isn't Vista ready. So not only is it poor customer service it doesn't seem to be good business in terms of generating support calls, unless of course they tell their customers to contact their software provider. I know that will win a loyal customer base. And MSFT is going to have another new OS two years (not that really I believe that) but it doesn't seem to make sense to upgrade for most folks. Except MSFT and DELL.
He did (checked with our company sysadmin) ; unfortunately he was looking for a low end box for the kids. I agree that phasing out XP makes economic sense, but I understand there are quite a few apps that still don't play well with Vista - one would hope for some more time before they force the switch on folks. I'm not cynical as much as I detest a company that puts a software company's interest above the end purchaser; that's just poor customer service. But hooray for capitalism, he got a better deal and what he wanted from a competitor.
Had a friend who tried to buy a Dell box today. They wouldn't sell it to him with XP on it; only Vista. I can only imagine what kind of deals Dell and MSFT have cut...