[Am-info] An excerpt from an email sent by Dell to all of its customers:

[Mitch Stone]

I haven't seen the contract between Microtel and Microsoft either, but 
based on Microtel's product offerings, I can make an educated guess about 
what at least one provision requires. Conspicuously, they do not offer any 
models which are configured in precisely the same way except for the OS. I 
suspect Dell cannot take advantage of this "loophole" because they permit 
their customers to configure their boxes themselves, and Microtel only 
sells them preconfigured.

Granted, as conspiracy theories go, this one isn't as juicy as Microsoft 
simply telling OEMs that they can't sell computers without Windows 
installed, but it does illustrate how subtly Microsoft can manipulate the 
market, and the kinds of far-reaching effects those manipulations can have.

Mitch

On Tuesday, August 13, 2002, at 01:56 PM, Erick Andrews wrote:

> On Tue, 13 Aug 2002 13:36:03 -0700, Mitch Stone wrote:
>
>> Be that as it may, the OEM in this instance is Microtel, not Wal-Mart. We
>> can already see that Microsoft's license with Microtel prohibits them 
>> from
>> offering the same box both with and without Windows. I'm wondering if
>> their contract with Dell isn't very similar, and only looks different
>> because Dell allows customers to configure their boxes and Microtel does
>> not.
>
> However, it's not the "same box".
>
> I for one have not seen the contract between Microtel and Microsoft.
>
> Hey, here's a WAG:  maybe "Napoleonic Law" precludes such a
> contract?  ISTR that Microtel is in France.  Oui?