Re: Microsoft: OEM choice would be a "disaster"

["Eric M. Bennett" <ericb@pobox.com>]

Brett wrote:

>Microsoft claims that "Mr. [David] Farber's suggestion that OEMs should
>decide which components of Windows they deliver to customers would be a
>disaster for consumers and software developers alike."
>
>In other words, Microsoft believes that the company from which you buy a
>system shouldn't be  allowed to differentiate its products or choose which
>software components come with it. This, in turn, means that consumers
>cannot choose.
>
>For whom would choice be a "disaster?" Only one company: Microsoft.

And yet again we see that Microsoft thinks it knows more about what
consumers want than the companies that are a step closer to consumers: the
PC makers.  And what do they have to say on the subject?  It's pretty
clear, I think...


We don't think we should have to ask permission every time we want to make
some minor software modification [to the Windows installation on Gateway
computers].  Windows is an operating system, not a religion.
-Ted Waitt, Chairman, Gateway 2000 Inc.


[NEC customers] do not like to have choices forced upon them, but would
rather choose themselves which (software) they use.
-Jon Kies, NEC Corporation


[When companies wipe the hard drive on a new PC] they sometimes don't know
all the utilities that
go back in.  So they call our technicians.  Providing a clean machine with
only essential files eliminates headaches. We have fewer problems because
they load only what they want.
- D.J. Anderson, Spokeswoman, Packard Bell NEC






--
Eric Bennett (http://www.pobox.com/~ericb/)
Cornell University, Field of Biochemistry, 377 Olin Chemistry Lab

I am a Macintosh loyalist and a happy user of Microsoft software.  Thus,
99.7% of everybody even remotely involved with computers has reason to find
fault with me.
-Mark Lincoln