2 ms·
Doesn't that initial $300-400 include a WinXP (albeit crippled?) install? I think especially at this price range, that could be a significant differentiator.
by joebadmo 16y ago
Doesn't that initial $300-400 include a WinXP (albeit crippled?) install? I think especially at this price range, that could be a significant differentiator.
- cryptoz 16y agoIn the netbook market, I believe Microsoft started paying manufactures to install Windows. There was a fast - and from Microsoft's position, scary - rise in Linux netbooks, and to counter that I'm pretty sure that OEMs were paid to install Windows, not the other way around.
- joebadmo 16y agoWhat a weird industry.
- ssp 16y agoWhat I heard is that they dropped the price of XP significantly, but not below 0. I'm having a lot of trouble believing that Microsoft would sell Windows at a loss.
- wmf 16y agoMS can't pay anyone to install Windows; that would probably be a violation of their antitrust consent degree. However, there is third-party crapware that pays PC vendors, and the payment for this stuff is more than the cost of an XP license, so effectively Windows is "better than free". Of course, Google kicks back money to Mozilla and Android vendors, so two can play at that game.
- wmf 16y agoYou're right; XP for netbooks is $15-35 according to Wikipedia, so a ChromeOS netbook should be slightly cheaper (assuming Google uses creative accounting to hide the development cost of ChromeOS). This doesn't change my argument that a 3G contract subsidy will not cover the entire cost of a netbook.