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Re: Be on Status of Pre-load agreements with OEMs
One interesting note on the M$ page is that the alternative OS' they tout are
primarily corporate computing platforms and not generally utilized by the average
person; I doubt HP would be pre-loading Solaris on their PA-RISC boxes! ;^) And then
there's the huge NCR market... Still not a lot of choices save Linux. Seems to me
yet more M$ spin...
Jeff
James Love wrote:
> Issue: Which OEMs will pre-load the BeOS?
>
> Apparently on December 16, 1998, Microsoft posted a web page which tells the
> world which major OEMs will provide pre-loads of non-Microsoft operating
> systems. This is on microsoft.com at:
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/trial/dec98/12-16response2.htm
>
> The Microsoft web page raised a few eyebrows. For example, despite MS's claim,
> I don't know of anyone who has actually been able to buy Linux from Dell
> pre-installed, unless one buys 50 PCs in a quarter (the offer Dell recently made
> to CPT when we asked to buy a PC with Linux pre-installed). People were also
> surprised when Microsoft claimed Gateway would sell BeOS pre-installed.
>
> Slashdot.Org had a discussion on this. One response was from Michael A.
> Alderete, the Product Marketing Manager for Be, Incorporated. Mr. Alderete said
> that MS's claim that that BeOS would be distributed pre-loaded on Gateway
> computers was untrue, at this time. MS has since corrected their web page.
> Here is Mr. Alderete's letter to Slashdot.Org.
>
> http://www.slashdot.org/articles/98/12/21/0210200.shtml
>
> The Be Line: No Bundle with Gateway (yet)
> by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 21, @04:08PM
> To set the record straight, this is, uh, not strictly factual
> information about the BeOS. Be does not currently have any publicly announced
> relationship with Gateway, nor could Microsoft know about any non-public
> relationship, if there was one.
>
> Be has talked with a variety of hardware OEM, including Gateway and
> many others, but at this time Hitachi is the only OEM with an actual agreement
> with Be to ship the BeOS on their hardware. Period.
>
> We're continuing to talk to OEMs, and we're confident there will be
> multiple bundling agreements signed in 1999. But there are no others at this
> time.
>
> Another piece of non-factual information is in Microsoft's price
> comparisons of the Windows 98 Upgrade to other operating systems, saying the
> BeOS is $100 to upgrade:
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/10-7pricing.htm
>
> Compared with other desktop operating systems, Windows 98 is
> clearly good value. The street price of a Windows 98 upgrade is currently $89,
> compared with about $100 for Be's BeOS; $110 for the OS/2 Warp 4.0 upgrade; and
> $430 for Sun's Solaris 2.6. Apple's Macintosh OS, the only operating system
> available to Mac users, has a street price of about $99.
>
> The information about BeOS pricing is incorrect. It's $100 to purchase
> the full OS ($70 if you buy it from BeDepot.com), and only $25 to upgrade a
> licensed copy to the latest release.
>
> They make the same "mistake" about the Mac OS, too, I note, comparing
> the retail price of the competitive product with the upgrade price for Windows.
>
> Thanks!
>
> ---
> Michael A. Alderete
> Product Marketing Manager
> Be, Incorporated
> -
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