[ale] OT: submit your own anti-trust complaint against Microsoft (trollicious)

[Kevin Krumwiede]

On Fri, 12 Sep 2003 11:23:55 -0400
"synco gibraldter" <synco at xodarap.net> wrote:

> they do.  though i'm sure MS loves these kinds of deals, i think the bottom line is that 
> dell does it because 1) the markup is outrageous for their volume on windows 
> software and 2) most people wouldn't know what to do if they had to install an OS on 
> their new machine.  yes i hate it, but blaming ms for it is like a person who refuses to 

In the past, Micosoft has forced vendors to choose between shipping every system with Windows preinstalled, or not being allowed to resell Windows at all.  Yes, it was the vendor's choice... but it wasn't much of a choice, was it?


> are making money from buying ms software?  i don't think so.  i think the university's 
> though process was more like: "what OS is used and known by most people?  which 
> OS has most of the software used in business [ms office junks, etc.]?"  of course 

More likely it simply didn't occur to the people that make these kinds of decisions that there might be an alternative.


> all the needed tasks for their job (or at home, even).  but you have to admit that right 
> now, there is absolutely no chance that an average person would even know what 
> they're looking at working with linux  -- the learning curve is much more steep and 

That's nonsense.  The average Windows user would feel right at home in Gnome or KDE.  So what if they can't install it?  They probably can't install Windows, either.  That's why companies have IT departments and computer vendors have tech support.   Those jobs would be much easier if everyone were using Linux.

Linux isn't "catching up" with Windows.  It surpassed it years ago.  The only reason anyone uses Windows is because everyone uses Windows.  For the last decade, Microsoft has used every underhanded tactic at its disposal to maintain that monopoly.  Now the general public is catching on, and Microsoft (or at least Windows) is doomed.  Good riddance!

Krum