Jeez, do you people really think Microsoft would cut off an OEM in the face of all the scrutiny they're under???
They'd be out of their minds to do this, and, if they are doing it, not to cave immediately to the first person who stands up to them and exposes the behavior, precisely my point.
And Jerry, despite all of Marc Andreessen's hype about Linux that you seemingly are believing, if an OEM no longer bundled Win32 but instead went with Linux, their sales would quickly approach zero.
If an OEM broke with Microsoft over Microsoft's refusal to allow them to bundle Windows and another OS, their sales would *not* quickly approach zero.
If the OEM were large enough, they would be in a perfect position to call Microsoft's bluff. Microsoft cannot afford to have its larger partners raise a public ruckus about their bad sales tactics. It would make Microsoft look terrible, bring down the DOJ on them and, potentially, cause one of Microsoft's key partners dedicate itself to helping to construct an architecture around a rival OS to the exclusion of Windows. Microsoft could potentially lose access to huge swaths of customers. I doubt very seriously that such a risk is really worth taking, especially since, if you believe the "increasing returns" school of thought, the cost to Microsoft's market share of bundling Linux will be small.
If the OEM were smaller, it would not have the market power to go up against Microsoft. But, there is, apparently, an installed Linux base, however small. It is simply a question of making Linux usable by "the rest of us," a problem Netscape is evidently now addressing. For a smaller OEM, servicing this base might present a viable business strategy, albeit one very different from the strategy most OEMs are pursuing now.
I do not deny that such a strategy will be risky, nor that sales will see some rough spots. But I think the assumption that anyone who goes against the Windows tide will get crushed is an assumption that should be carefully examined, because it just might turn out to be false. |
