Why is Windows And Nothing But Windows Installed on Every New PC or Laptop (until Yesterday)?
It’s the 4th Friday of the month and you know it’s time for your favorite A Gentle Introduction to Linux for Non-Geeks again! We looked at Linux on a YouTube video last time, and guess what, today we’ll be talking about the world’s oldest alcoholic beverage. Attentive Cryptic Clarity readers have probably noticed that our monthly feature was put on hold in April because of my disappointing trip to Hamburg for a Joanna Newsom concert, only to arrive at the concert hall faced with a cancellation notice. As I wandered about on the flamboyant Reeperbahn dejectedly at night, I noticed something curious: almost every bar and club has something like this on its sign or door.
What is Astra, I asked my Hamburger friend, and why is it on every bar and club?
Turns out that Astra is a beer from Hamburg made by Holsten Brewery. It’s a common practice that Breweries in Germany often give out loans to new restaurants and pubs that might need start-up capital. In exchange you’ll be bound to a Bierliefervertrag (beer supply contract), typically for a duration of no less than 10 years, which stipulates how much beer from the lending brewery you have to sell for how much money each year. Since most of these breweries also produce soft drinks, you’re required to buy their products in regulated amount as well. Those who fail to meet these requirements will be sanctioned. Many a establishment also enter similar deals with dominant breweries to get discounts on specific beverages, free beer glasses, equipment and furniture. In return you buy barrels and kegs of beer and refill them exclusively from the specific brewery, and you advertise for them. That explains the Astra sign you see everywhere in Hamburg.
Microsoft (you know this is coming, right?), when it comes to marketing its Windows operating system (now you know what OS stand for), runs business in a quite similar vein, but with unscrupulous malice and dire consequences. In order to establish and secure its monopolistic market, Microsoft disregards fair competition. They give discounted Windows software to all PC makers to install on every machine they sell, under the condition that no other operating systems are allowed to be installed on the same machine. In other words, if you want to sell Windows Beer from Microsoft Brewery, don’t you dare sell Heineken, Budweiser, Guinness, Corona, or any other beer that doesn’t come from Microsoft Brewery. Although the licensing terms do not specifically prohibit PC makers from selling machines running only alternative OSs, PC makers frequently face implicit threats or retaliatory actions from Microsoft should they choose to do so. Sure, you can choose to serve only non-alcoholic drinks in another affiliate, says Microsoft Brewery, but don’t blame us if we need all those tables and chairs back. What’s more, these licensing agreements are not uniform, so the restrictions given to Toshiba are probably quite different from that given to HP. By cunningly labeling these licenses as trade secrets, Microsoft successfully avoided divulging details of these contracts in court during the Antitrust lawsuit from the US government.
That’s why every time you buy a new computer, you’ll have Windows running on it, and nothing but Windows. With every new laptop you buy, you’re automatically paying a “Windows Tax” even when you don’t want to use Windows. Now you’re probably thinking, surely Windows must be the best OS out there and what everybody wants, that’s why there’s no demand for other OSs, and why computer manufacturers are not selling other commercial OSs. That’s exactly what Bill Gates wants you to think. By bundling Windows automatically with every new machine sold and no other operating systems present, the line between the software and hardware is deliberately made obscure: a lot of people still think computers and Windows are the same thing. Many don’t know there are alternatives to Windows. There are in fact a lot of demand for IBM (now Lenovo), Acer, HP, Dell and others to sell PCs with other OSs, which PC makers just turn a deaf ear to for fear of getting on Microsoft’s blacklist.
But you can only ignore the customers for so long. Dell, one of the biggest computer manufacturers, finally gives in to popular demands and, beginning yesterday, May 24 2007, consumers can proudly purchase a brand new PC with Linux running on it. (If you don’t know what Ubuntu is and what it has to do with Linux, we’ll talk about it next month)
Next time you see a logo that says “[enter the name of a computer manufacturer] recommends Windows XP/Vista”, don’t get fooled. That’s just another jaded bar, tyrannized under Microsoft Brewery, serving the obligatory beer that leaves a bad taste in your mouth and cheating its customers out of various iced-cold, thirst-quenching beers they want to drink or try.
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