Hacker News Reader

Comment by kevingadd | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand the sense of anger in this article. What do they expect Microsoft to do, restrict the freedom of customers to install software on PCs? OEMs are customers just like the people who actually buy PCs; you can't trivially restrict one without restricting the other.

If you ask me, the fact that Microsoft offers this service is a risky move on their part because it risks upsetting the OEMs. Charging $99 for the cost of labor is pretty reasonable since you get phone support with it - I can easily imagine troublesome customers racking up hours of support costs in those 90 days after paying for this service.

View on HN

You're not frustrated that it's near to impossible to buy a Windows PC without a bunch of crap on it? I've set up plenty of PCs in my time, and I absolutely loathe the process. I can't simply turn the PC on and turn it over to whoever is going to use it. They'll encounter a continuous barrage of trial expirations and prompts.

What do we expect Microsoft to do about it? Nothing, really. It'd be nice if OEMs took the high road, but they're not going to do that either. Does that mean we should all just shut up about it? Heh, that ain't happening' either.

> OEMs are customers just like the people who actually buy PCs; you can't trivially restrict one without restricting the other.

This is plain wrong. Microsoft dictates licensing with its customers and it certainly has the right to license on different terms to different customers.

And in fact they do exactly this with OEM's already.

MSFT is certainly within its rights and capabilities to include in their licensing dealings with OEM partners terms that prohibit pre-installing what they deem "crapware". And asking them to enforce this restriction (whether a good idea or not) is nonetheless reasonable.

The 2004 DOJ-Microsoft consent decree explicitly prohibits Microsoft from tying Windows licenses to the OEM's ability to install other software. So Microsoft is not within its rights to do that.

I can go out and buy the OEM edition of windows, as an individual, without signing any license agreement with Microsoft. And I can go install it on a PC and sell that PC to a customer of mine if I happen to operate a PC shop.

> without signing any license agreement with Microsoft

Clickwrap is a blurry legal line, but you more or less are "signing" a license agreement by installing Windows.

And nonetheless the "OEM edition" that you get is potentially very different (license-wise) from the custom-negotiated contract that Dell is bound to when they order two hundred thousand licenses from Microsoft.

I don't think that's right. Microsoft has partnerships with manufacturers, and they give them early access to new versions of Windows so they beta test, they sign patent deals, and so on. In the Microsoft-manufacturer relationship, Microsoft is definitely on higher ground and can dictate them some terms.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com