[nylug-talk] OT: machines with windows pre-installed

[geeknoob]

Wait wait,
I had called Dell on another issue, and they said they were getting 
inundated from calls of users saying that the "Genuine Advantage" crap 
was telling them their version of Windows wasn't legit.  Meaning, it's 
probably not your Windows at fault, it's probably M$'s patch system.

The fix is here: http://tinyurl.com/o2ttp

For the record, I had the same thing with my Fujitsu lappy.  I got it 
home and turned 'er on, then went "You've got to be shitting me", when I 
realized it had Norton's A/V Home on it, and I wasn't going to be able 
to (easily, due to lack of a real Windows CD) get rid of it.  They do 
this because it apparently lowers the cost of the OS.  (though I've no 
idea how, don't shoot the messenger!)

~GN

Rajesh Menon wrote:
> I'm guessing that the price of the Microsoft OS is included in the 
> price of
> the desktop/laptop.
>
> When I bought my laptop, the manufacturer wouldn't sell it to me 
> without the
> Microsoft OS, even though I didn't want it. I didn't want it primarily
> because I don't use it, and thought the cost would go down for the 
> laptop.
>
> Of course, when I got my laptop, the Windows Install CD wasn't there - 
> just
> the Repair CD. First thing I did was re-partition my disk for 
> dual-booting
> Linux and Windows. The Repair Disk is of no use to install Windows, so I
> borrowed my friend's disk and installed it.
>
> Sometime ago, Microsoft introduced their "Genuine Advantage" program. I
> believe their first step was not to allow windows updates. At least they
> allowed the download and install of other products.
>
> Today, I wanted to try IE7 and was stopped by the same program which 
> tells
> me that I need to have "Genuine Microsoft Software" to get it.
>
> I am furious. If I paid at the time of purchase for an OS, shouldn't the
> Install Disk be part of the purchase? I have a Mac, and the thing came 
> with
> 2 Installation DVD's.
>
> What other software company follows the practise of making the 
> customer pay
> for the product and with-hold the selling of the installation scripts?
>
> As it is, I use my win32 partition a handful of times a year - primarily
> because some website is very IE-centric and won't load on anything 
> else. I
> hope by their next OS release, the rendering of websites on IE7 won't be
> much different than those on the gecko browsers.
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