🚀 go-pugleaf

On Mon, 19 Jul 2010 01:50:19 -0700, in
<4c4411c2$0$22090$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net>, SMS
<scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:

>On 19/07/10 1:15 AM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
>> On Mon, 19 Jul 2010 00:41:33 -0700, SMS<scharf.steven@geemail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I know that Dell has (or used to have) a way to buy their machines
>>> without any OS and the price was reduced slightly.
>>
>> It's still there as an N-Series PC with FreeDOS in the box (not
>> installed):
>> <http://www.dell.com/business/desktops#subcats=&navla=&a=80770~0~1791343>
>> The problem is that some of these machines cost more than the
>> equivalent with Windoze installed.
>> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_n_Series>
>
>As well they should. The Windows machines almost certainly have a lower 
>net cost to Dell. With the Windows machines the manufacturer gets paid 
>for loading trial versions of various applications onto the machine. 
>There is a likelihood that the purchaser will add applications like 
>Microsoft Office to the machine.

That part is correct.
"Even a stopped clock is right twice a day."

>The machines can be manufactured in 
>much higher volumes without having the annoyance of managing the 
>distribution of a very low volume SKU that almost no one wants to buy. 
>The Windows machine must be priced competitively with similarly equipped 
>Windows machines from other manufacturers.

That part is not correct -- you obviously don't know PC manufacturing
(either) -- there isn't a single "SKU" (configuration), there are a
multitude of them, with machines differing in CPU's, memory, hard
drives, graphics cards, etc, etc, including software, so there is no
real volume issue on the build configuration.

The real issue is in support cost -- it's prohibitive in such a low
margin business to support low volume configurations that are greatly
different (e.g., Linux) from the bulk of the configurations (Windows).

-- 
John

"It is better to sit in silence and appear ignorant,
than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." -Mark Twain
"A little learning is a dangerous thing." -Alexander Pope
"Being ignorant is not so much a shame, 
as being unwilling to learn." -Benjamin Franklin