[Am-info] Gateway Official Hits Microsoft Licensing In Testimony

[Joe Moore]

On Tue, Mar 26, 2002 at 05:04:35PM -0500, Felmon Davis wrote:
> On Tuesday 26 March 2002 11:38 am, Joe Moore wrote:
> > I wonder what would happen if the OEM really looked at the cost of
> > alternative OS support vs. the cost of supporting Windows.  What do
> > you think the service surcharge would be for a Microsoft OS?
> 
> I don't know it for a fact but isn't it a pretty safe assumption that 
> MS could undersell any competitor in this contest? Most hardware is 
> made with Windows in mind so a Windows install is likely (not always, 
> as I know from person experience) to be relatively easy and 
> relatively cheap. 

Well, in the present market, the OEM choice is easy.  If the hardware
works with Windows, it can be sold.  If it doesn't, then "nobody" will 
buy it.  If it doesn't work well with Windows, then it's between Microsoft
and the hardware mfr to come up with new drivers.  The OEM just has to
tell its customers "try downloading the latest driver from our website".

In the hypothetical future where the OS is purchased separately, it is in
the OEMs interest to install/sell hardware supported by all (or many) of 
its available OSs, so that the same system can be purchased with Windows 
or Non-Windows.  This reduces the support cost of having multiple system 
configurations.  This would also create an incentive for hardware mfrs 
to support their products on multiple OSs, because in order to sell to 
Gateway, they'd have to have reasonably good support for operating 
systems other than Windows.

--Joe