|
[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
Hi,
Jon Galt wrote:
>
> On Sun, 17 Feb 2002, Fred K Ollinger wrote:
>
> > Be corp tried to GIVE their os away as a dual boot w/ Dell,
> > and Dell refused. If you can't give your product away, then what further
> > proof do you need? Dell wanted it, Be wanted it. Consumers would have
> > benefitted as it was going to be a dual boot. Consumers who didn't care
> > about Be could have ignored the tiny partition, and it would have
> > automatically booted to windows. Obviously, the computer market was as
> > free, at the
> > time, as Russia was in the 80's, thanks to MS.
>
> I don't see anything you described as coercive. Dell apparently made a
> business decision based on their options. How is that unfree?
>
It's my understanding that Dell did make "a business decision based on
their options." Their options at the time were put BeOS on their boxen
and lose their contract from Microsoft (specifically the money from
their sale of Microsoft products), or refuse BeOS. So they "chose" to
stay in business because they would have lost Microsoft's business had
they accepted Be's business. Maybe someone will have a better
explanation, but as far as I know, there's your coercion.
**********************************************************************
Sandra Jean Schmidt-Jonas | http://www.laserhen.net
"Never regard study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn
to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit
for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which
your later work belongs." --Albert Einstein
**********************************************************************
______________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group - http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements-http://lists.phillylinux.org/mail/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mail/listinfo/plug
|
|