In the cut-throat business of IT, everyone's fighting to save a buck and choice is king. That's how the top-tier PC companies choose to portray their game. As we found, reality is different. At a time when the alternatives are looking more convincing than ever, buying a PC still means buying Windows — whether you want it or not.
Of the top five PC sellers we talked to, none could actually provide a naked PC. Dell came closest, offering to ship a PC at a £50 discount provided we promised to erase Windows when we got it. The rest — Toshiba, Acer, HP and Lenovo — came nowhere near. You may have thought that these companies existed to sell PCs for a fair price configured to the customers' specification. In reality they will not, or dare not, do anything that risks that famous monopoly.
This is both unfair and contradictory. Many corporate buyers of PCs will have licence deals with Microsoft that cover any installation — and will reformat the hard disk with their own image as soon as it arrives. They're now paying twice. Individual buyers who want to install a different operating system are forced to pay for something they won't use. We are constantly reminded by software companies that using software without payment is theft. It isn't, of course. Theft is the taking of property with intent to permanently deprive — a description far better suited to the taking of money without rendering any service.
Everyone is in their comfort zones. The resellers are happy to be able to charge a bit more for a little less work — or get so much kickback from Windows utility merchants that they can't afford to ship a non-Windows machine. Customers have no choice and are resigned to paying the Windows tax, and Microsoft manfully struggles with the problem of being paid more often than it should.
With margins so thin and Vista upgrades inspiring so little enthusiasm, the market is ready to be shaken up. It's a good time to remember how the big names in IT got going, by aggressively evicting the competition from its comfort zone, and apply the same lessons in turn. This is supposed to be an entrepreneurial business. Let's make sure the PCs, not the emperors, are naked.
Talkback
I'm currently looking to buy a laptop/notebook and have seen a great deal on the Alienware website.
I already own a copy of Vista Ultimate and it's license enables me to install on 3 systems that I own. I therefore want to buy a naked system to save myself paying for Vista twice.
I encounter the same issues as the ZDNet team. <strong>No one will sell the laptop OS free</strong>. I understand with laptops there is the issue with essential drivers and utilities needing to be pre-installed. However, if someone is savvy enough to want to install their own OS they can probably download a driver or two. Also it wouldn't kill them to provide the drivers on CD if they are that obscure. Ironically, <strong>Vista doesn't support some of the features of the laptop</strong> I want (dual graphic cards) and so there is a note on the site to explain when I initially use the system one graphics card will be disabled until Nvidia/Microsoft release a vista compatible driver. <strong>If the OS doesn't even support the hardware of a new system why is it being pushed ahead of other Operating Systems that DO fully support it</strong> such as Windows XP.
I enquired if it would be cheaper to have an older version of windows installed such as XP. Apparently <strong>it costs MORE to have an older OS</strong>. I was quoted an additional £24 charge having XP Pro instead of Vista Home Premium. Are Microsoft pushing Vista that much that putting an older and possibly soon to be obsolete OS costs more money rather than less?
It looks like I will have to buy my system with Vista home and then use my ultimate edition to upgrade it. My other alternative is to go for a <strong>MacBook Pro</strong> and install Bootcamp/crossover/parrellels and have Vista on there too. But you get so <strong>much less bang for your buck</strong> when you compare the specs of the MacBook Pro and an Alienware notebook