[TriLUG] Buying a laptop with no Microsoft tax?

[Greg Brown]

On Tuesday, Oct 8, 2002, at 18:02 America/New_York, Mike Johnson wrote:

> Justin Johnson [justin at eCotton.com] wrote:
>>> Anything you buy, part of the money is going to Microsoft somehow, 
>>> some
>>> way, just deal.
>>
>> Just to play devil's advocate here....
>>
>> So how does the cash spent for a boxed set of Red Hat or Mandrake get 
>> to
>> Redmond?
>
> Allow for some hyperbole and it doesn't take much effort.  Some of the
> money that purchased that boxed set went towards the purchase of the
> computer sitting on the secretary's desk that runs some version of
> Windows.  There's someone (or more than one) at each of those companies
> that runs a Microsoft product (for whatever reason).  Your purchase of
> that boxed set helped finance the purchase of that Microsoft product.
>
> Like I said, it's a bit of a silly example, but so is the idea that if 
> I
> purchase an Apple product, that because Microsoft owns some tiny
> fraction of Apple stock, that Microsocft profits from my purchase.


Even I don't have a problem with Microsoft making money off my purchase 
via Apple stock (or the other scenarios out there).  And I don't - or 
WILL I - run M$ Office vX (it even has as stupid, pointless name.. 
"vX"???)

What's important to me is not purchasing Microsoft LICENSES (or even 
one) when you are just going to turn around and strip the box of MS and 
run Linux.  That directly equates to Redmond taxing you for the 
obligation of choosing your non-microturd operating systems and I am 
100% against that (in my house, anyway).  This is exactly why I've 
built my desktop machines and servers myself (that and I get good power 
supplies, blah blah blah).

If we took the theory of how Microsoft profits indirectly and we are 
not going to support that we may as well take a vow of poverty and join 
some monk cult or something like that.  Microsoft has 40 BILLION in 
cash balances.  They own a part of nearly everything I'm sure.

I would urge everyone not to purchase a Microsoft license if you're not 
going to use it, but I'm sure everyone is 100% clear on my position 
regarding M$ so why urge anything?  People will make their own 
decisions.  That's the beauty of America.

But I'll offer honest advice regarding my Mac laptop: if you want a 
Linux laptop, the Mac just ain't it.  If you want a non-M$ laptop that 
has a fantastic GUI, neato features and software, and a really cool 
UNIX based OS then by all means, get the Mac!   But it's not Linux.  If 
you want Linux hit ebay, get yourself a second-hand laptop in good 
condition and load up your distro of choice.

Greg

>
> Mike
> -- 
> "Let the power of Ponch compel you!  Let the power of Ponch compel 
> you!"
>    -- Zorak on Space Ghost
>
> GNUPG Key fingerprint = ACD2 2F2F C151 FB35 B3AF  C821 89C4 DF9A 5DDD 
> 95D1
> GNUPG Key = http://www.enoch.org/mike/mike.pubkey.asc
> <mime-attachment>