In article , Iain Churches
wrote:

"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...

In the UK, Windows is mainly "sold by" the retailer/maker attitude,
"That's what the PC comes with, Sir. It is a part of the package
price. We don't sell the hardware without it." You can perhaps choose
XP rather than 7, but what if you don't want either, or any version of
Windows, but want the hardware?

Hmm. Interesting. The situation is very different here, probably because
a variety of language versions have to be offered. So you can specify
Swedish/Danish/Norwegian/Finnish OS either XP, Vista, or 7. You can
also buy a system (at reduced cost) without an OS. That seems a lot
fairer to me.

It also seems fairer to me. However IIUC in the UK the situation in most
shops is rather more basic. Chances are all 'PCs' will have Windows
installed, and if anyone asks for hardware without that they will get
either a blank look of puzzlement or a response along the lines, "Sorry, we
can't/don't so that, Sir".

There are specialist dealers. But they are often faced with a situation
where many makers only sell their hardware with Windows 'pre installed' and
refuse *not* to do this as part of the 'bundle'. So they either have to
waste money on an OS they don't want, or find some makes that supply sans
OS, or 'roll their own'.

The obvious problem is that this then restricts the customer choice. You
either have to rule out various hardware options, or pay for an 'extra' you
do not need or want, but which can be wiped once you have paid the 'Windows
Tax'. :-)

I understand that in theory you can reclaim the money if you can jump
though hoops and get Microsoft to give you a 'refund' sic. But I wonder
how many people in the UK have ever managed this and how hard it is. I also
wonder how happy they would be to have their personal details then perhaps
kept by the company as a 'refusenik'. :-)

On a day-to-day basis this doesn't bother me much. I've just resigned
myself to wasting some cash on wiped OSs. And most of my own computing
doesn't use Linux, either. But it does strike me as a shameful
anti-competitive practice which should be stopped. People should be free at
the point of sale to choose whatever OS they prefer that will run on the
hardware and *not* forced to pay for something they don't want and won't
need. Hence my comments about "free market", etc.


This is veering OT, I suppose. But perhaps we can at least get a
strained link by noting that MacOS these days is in some ways a
commercial BSD distro IIUC. :-)

People's discontent with Vista has been good for Mac. Keith is one of
the many who made the change, and are now enjoying the benefits of a
stable OS, with less resemblance to a Swiss cheese and less
vulnerability to viruses.

That;s funny, I thought he was using MacOS... Oh yes, it is a *nix distro
now, isn't it. ;-

Most of my own home computing uses RISC OS, and has done for decades. But
for other purposes I've used all kinds of OS and hardware. For obvious
reasons Unix has featured (mainly Solaris). However I've only recently
found Linux convenient for home uses. It offers the flexibility and
configurability of Unix with - nowdays - quite a neat selection of GUIs and
Desktops. I tend to prefer ROX filer/desktop running on top of Ubuntu or
Xubuntu. User experience similar to RISC OS and dead easy to write simple
applications. But I think some MacOS users might also like some of the
Mac-like GUIs/desktops.

However I'm personally quite happy with a "choose the tool that suits you
for the task in hand" approach, so don't expect everyone to have the same
preferences as myself. That's the reason for my concern for the way
alternatives to Windows tend to be suppressed by the behaviours of
retailers or makers. How can people make and informed choice if they aren't
informed and not given a choice on a fair basis?

I'll now veer even further OT by writing...

Hooray! The 4GB Compact Flash card I ordered has just dropped though the
letterbox. I can now spend some time today experimenting with a new toy.
The Tascam HD P2 recorder. :-)

That in due course may drag my attention back to things that are more
firmly on topic here. :-)

Slainte,

Jim

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