[mythtv-users] First ION desktop officially announced - Acer AspireRevo

[David Brodbeck]

Brian Wood wrote:
> It really is an insult to give a $14 refund if you don't use Windows, and 
> charge HOW much for it standalone? In some places this would be 
> called "dumping", and be illegal. Quantity discounts are one thing, but this 
> is ridiculous.

A lot of it is probably support costs.  When you buy a computer with 
Windows pre-installed, the computer manufacturer is responsible for 
providing user support.  When you buy a retail copy, Microsoft has to 
provide support themselves, so it's much more expensive for them.  Other 
OS vendors make this more explicit. For example, you can download 
Solaris for free, but if you want tech support you have to pay a 
substantial amount for it.

At work we run a mostly Linux shop, but we order nearly all of our 
machines with Windows licenses anyway to keep our options open for 
future re-use.  We have a licensing agreement that allows us to install 
any version of Windows we want, but *only* if the machine already has a 
valid license for some version of Windows.  We order a lot of machines 
with Windows Vista Home Edition. ;)