On Fri, Mar 30, 2007 at 04:01:41AM EST, Max Hyre wrote: > Dear Debianistas: > > John Hasler wrote: > > The manufacturer may be paying Microsoft a fixed fee for > > every machine he ships rather than for every copy of > > Microsoft Windows he ships. This makes sense when nearly > > every machine has Microsoft Windows installed. > > Precisely. But the sense is inverted. Nearly every > machine has a copy of MS Windows installed because the > manufacturer pays a fixed fee for every machine shipped. > > When this whole thing started to snowball (as in when MS > had gotten a solid foothold by selling MS-DOS for lots less > than the P-system or CP/M-86) MS made an offer no one in > her right mind could refuse. Their per-hardware-unit-sold > license was so much cheaper than the per-OS-copy-sold > license that it made no sense to do anything else. Thus, > any system sent out already had the cost of MS-DOS (later MS > Windows) built into its price. Hence, remarks about the > ``Microsoft Tax''.
without "representation" .. So when's our Boston Tea Party? Thanks, cga -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
