[Am-info] Wal-Mart

[Erick Andrews]

On Sat, 02 Mar 2002 08:56:42 -0800, T.Guilbert wrote:

>In a message dated 2002 March 02 (Saturday), timestamp 10:42 AM, 
>   on the topic Re: [Am-info] Wal-Mart [WAS: The Wallmart PC],
>   "Erick Andrews" <eandrews@star.net> wrote:
>
>"|>you sell 10,000 PCs with Microsoft installed, your per-processor
>"|>charge is X dollars, total Microsoft tax:  10,000X.  if you sell 9,999
>"|>PCs with Microsoft installed, and one PC bare or with another OS, your
>"|>per-processor charge is (X+Y), total Microsoft tax:  9,999(X+Y). 
>
>"|What the definition of "Y" here?   Some fraction of "X"?
>
>"|If so, would you know if it's typically greater or less than 1?
>
>First, I should note that this CPU charge is nominally the only thing
>that the original FTC consent decree prescribed.  (It is widely
>thought that Microsoft continued the practice thereafter, in minimal
>disguise.)  IIRC back about nine years ago, a friend who ran a
>computer assembly operation said that, for his purchases, X was about
>$30 and X+Y about $50, but my recollection may be faulty. 
>

Thanks.

It makes me wonder then that it's all in MS's NDAs.

-- 
Erick Andrews