[svlug] Windows refund

[Don Marti]

begin James Sparenberg quotation of Wed, Jun 03, 2009 at 10:01:00PM -0700:

> Some how (According to PC Magazine et al) M$ is losing money on every 
> current notebook sale with XP.)  Which is why they are pushing to gain 
> the market and move to 7.  Now where they are losing money I'm not sure 
> since the cost of bits is minimal at best.  Perhaps the lost money is on 
> the support and patch end not sure. 

A lot of it is the cost of co-op marketing.  The first
MSFT consent decree restricts how the company can
price its OS products, but there are no restrictions
on marketing money.  When you see an "example.com
recommends Windows Vista for business" tagline in
an ad, that shows that example.com is getting the
co-op marketing money.

  http://www.microsoft.com/oem/coop/default.mspx

The presence of Linux in the netbook market meant that
MSFT had to do special marketing programs in that
area, _and_ cut prices, _and_ postpone the EOL date
for Windows XP.  All three benefit the OEMs, and all
that they had to do for it was ship a few Linux boxes.

What looks like a "Linux desktop failure" from outside
a hardware company is probably a successful gambit
from the inside.  So don't be shy about pitching Linux
to companies that have tried Linux on the desktop and
"failed."

> As for the 99 dollar system.  I think you will see them in Q3 this year, 
> but not in blister packs. Instead T-Mobile Verizon et all are going to 
> be pushing subsidized ARM based "Smartbooks" for which Android is the #1 
> OS. (and despite some arguments it IS Linux just not as much GNU)  This 
> link goes to the one Qualcomm was showing off, and for which Asus 
> apologized to Microsoft for it not running a WinOS.
> 
>  http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9133718
> 
> But this type of system is slated to come out at around $100 dollars + 
> 3G contract, and I won't be at all surprised to see it sell.  I know 
> companies I've worked for and talked to, are talking about buying this 
> type of setup for use by on-call personnel so they can be nearly 100% 
> mobile (and have a family life) while being able to connect back to the 
> company if needed.  Better than a pager for sure.

There has to be a niche for something bigger than
a phone and easier to administer than a full-scale
laptop for sales reps, delivery drivers, and repair
people.

-- 
Don Marti                                 +1 510-332-1587 mobile
http://zgp.org/~dmarti/
dmarti at zgp.org
See you at OpenSource World: August 11-13, 2009 in San Francisco