[no subject]

I think that as long as MS, unaffected by the antitrust convictions they
were handed, continues its business practices, I think you're going to
continue to see the situation you describe. =20

Think of Dell and HP.  They compete relentlessly against each other, yet
both are dependent on the same vendor (MS) for OS and app software.=20
Anything either one does that might upset MS - offer Linux or
OpenOffice, for instance - might cause them to suffer; there may well be
contractual terms that the PC vendor was hammered into taking or there
may be intangibles like MS leaving themselves a path by which they can
punish the PC vendor in any number of ways.  Either way, it's an
abuse-laden situation because any punitive measures MS takes, even if
small, will harm the vendor with respect to its competition with other
vendors.

In other words, suppose (and I don't at all KNOW this is the case, but
here's a possible scenario) that Dell and HP both have identical
contracts with MS (that is almost certainly NOT the case, but I'm just
trying to illustrate) that say that if the vendors offer any GPL
software on their machines as shipped, they have to pay an extra 3% to
MS for Windows licenses. 3% doesn't sound like much, BUT consider that
the vendor, in order to break even, will have to make up that 3%
somewhere else (won't the stockholders demand it?) - ship jobs to India,
use a crappier motherboard, whatever.  The race to the bottom thunders
on. =20

This is why I advocate getting whole machines from medium-sized to small
local system builders instead of going the Dell/HP route.  They don't
seem to be as beholden to MS, AND, if you ARE going to get it with a
Windows OS, you'll get an actual MS OEM Windows package w/ CD-ROM, not
some stupid "recovery CD" that's shot through with some vendor's
channel-marketing BS (it's bad enough that you'll get MS' BS). =20

So, forget the Dell-Packards of the world.  What REALLY needs to happen
is that Free Software needs to land in people's hands.  There need to be
OpenOffice CDs next to AOL CDs at the post office.  I recently GAVE some
friends on the other side of the so-called Digital Divide a junker P/100
with Debian and OpenOffice.  I think that OpenOffice is a more important
wedge to drive between MS and people's money than Linux right now
because nearly everyone with a computer wants to word-process and it
takes some real money to get into ANY kind of MS Word.  Yet, where is
OO's street buzz?  Where are the CDs?  Where are the bumper stickers?

- Jeff


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