Mark, Mark Harrison wrote: > Tony Arnold wrote: >> I've never understood how or why this works! Why should the vendor of >> the bloatware pay Dell to install it? Surelly, Dell should buy a license >> for the bloatware from its vendor and pass this on to the customer. It >> just seems counter intutitive to me, but then I work in a University and >> have almost zero understanding of how business works! >> > It's the "free trial" principle. > > The software that's included is something like a 30-day version of a > paint program, or a 6-month subscription to an anti-virus product. > > Once the customer is hooked on the product, it's easier for them to get > out a credit card and pay the fee to enable it for longer than to start > looking around for alternatives.
Ah! That makes sense. I've never bought a machine from a retailer with pre-installed software, so I've never experienced this. Just goes to show that there are even more potential hidden costs to the Vista machine that aren't there with FL/OSS. > On the bright side, sometimes this approach gets people into FL/OSS > software.... my brother, for instance, used the paint program until it > expired, decided he needed a paint program, and now uses The GIMP. I bet you influenced your brother in his decision! Most people, I'm sure, will just cough up the money being unaware of the free alternatives. > Once you've got someone on The GIMP, OpenOffice, Firefox and > Thunderbird, it's not a long stretch to get them onto Ubuntu.... This is very true. Regards, Tony. -- Tony Arnold, IT Security Coordinator, University of Manchester, IT Services Division, Kilburn Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL. T: +44 (0)161 275 6093, F: +44 (0)870 136 1004, M: +44 (0)773 330 0039 E: [EMAIL PROTECTED], H: http://www.man.ac.uk/Tony.Arnold -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
