- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
You must log in or register to comment.
The price difference does make sense, it’s the cost to cover therapy for the employee that was forced to preinstall Windows on a computer for the thousandth time
nothing new. here in brazil many manufacturers, dell included, would ship laptops with linux and then people would shove a pirated windows copy on it.
.
Used to have? Not anymore?
.
Wouldn’t be surprised if Bolsonaro had gotten pocketed a kickback from MS to quietly remove that law’s teeth.
.
oligopoly
That’s a way to misspell monopoly, alright.
.
Fair. Although, I consider Microsoft’s market “Most laptops” since Apple kind of does its own thing and Chromebooks are ultra-low end laptops. Thus Microsoft gets ~95% of the market for themselves.
Personally, I’d say that’s a clear case of monopoly since MS controls this entire segment of “non-Apple, non-ultra low power laptop, PCs”, but you’re right - there are other players. The thing is, they have relatively tiny niches in which they thrive and in fact pose no threat to the monopolist.
But I now I see how you see it as an oligopoly, which is quite valid.
Currently in France No OS is -€60 and with Fedora or Ubuntu it’s -€30
Don’t ask. Different markets, pricing irrelevant to actual costs
SteamOS is next.
Finally!
Wow, I didn’t realize the windows tax was that high. I thought the bulk OEM licensing was significantly cheaper than the retail price.
I thought it was as much as the $10-$20 keys from key resellers.
It’s kind of absurd. When you buy a TV, the bloated adware at least helps lower the price. Imagine paying extra for it.
.
It’s HAPPENING!
Windows is free for anyone to use indefinitely… If you’re OK with a persistent watermark.
Why even add a premium to the laptop? Let the user decide to use windows as-is, pay a license, or switch to Linux. 🤭
In practice. Technically, were M$ to go sue users left and right (or send those ISP-style “gotcha”, now pay up) emails.
Luckiy, M$ knows well enough that 90% of that userbase wouldn’t have too many qualms jumping ship if they got slapped with a huge fine, so M$ lets them be.
They value the high userbase more than a quick payout (and rightly so). However, there’s no guarantee that can’t change overnight (just look at Unity and before that, Adobe).
