301–310 of 353 posts
I also raised an eyebrow at "the vast majority of laptops are only sold with a specific proprietary operating system: Microsoft Windows", but after looking at some estimates it seems legit. Probably only about 1 in 10 laptops is a Mac. Software developers really just live in a different world than normal people. It got me thinking though: what is a laptop? People probably count Chromebooks, and that seems fair. Is a…
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> Like needing a smartphone to read a menu at a restaurant, Every restaurant I’ve been to like this has a menu somewhere. > or replace a lost credit card. The phone numbers never stopped working. You just stopped calling
> The phone numbers never stopped working. You just stopped calling The bank managed to not fix the problem the last 4 times my grandmother called them. Every single problem required an appointment to fix (I suspect they're not even allowed to do anything with any account over phone given how many times this has happened). Yes, her bank is bad and I've told her to switch. But I wouldn't expect any other bank to actua…
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And who are you to tell, me what I need?
You went from want to need. Maybe you should self inspect about want versus need.
And thank's for the advice, but I know how to live with little to survive and I know what I need to thrive and that ain't the same thing.
Sometimes, it seems, Microsoft will actually OEM Windows at a loss. A year ago I bought some NUCs with Windows pre-installed that were less expensive that if they came with Ubuntu. Microsoft apparently felt is was important to try and hang onto that market. I bought the less expensive NUCs with Windows and then formatted them and installed Ubuntu, saving myself around $40 per machine.
Ie: the Windows OEM license costs less than the total amount of money that the other software publishers are paying for distribution and if you reject windows, your are rejecting things that subsidize the price of the PC itself.
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I have a sneaking suspicion that Dell probably had standing orders to not bother to argue with someone who wanted a reimbursement for Windows, and just get it over with. If you care enough to want that, you care enough to argue your case and make life a hassle for everyone if Dell refuses. To even ask the question is a shibboleth that instantly marks you as someone on the edge of the bell curve. I also have a similar…
It's been very funny to go through life discovering such shibboleths exist in so many random places and its like getting a powerup to even find out about them...
The CPU is almost identical in performance to the one they were advertising —it was certainly malicious— but do I deserve $200 for something I didn't even care about in the first place?
There an argument to be made for harming the criminals even if you deserve it but it just doesn't vibe with my type.
It's unfair that apple gets an easy pass on this, as well as any mobile device.
In what sense is it unfair or do they get a pass? I’m asking in earnest. My impression is that you may be confused about the dynamics or are just trying to compare Apples to Oranges out of distaste. No one at Apple paid for a macOS license on your behalf in any sense a legal regime might recognize so there is nothing to be refunded if you choose not to accept the license. It’s one of the many, many structural advanta…
Apple can claim "we offer vertical integration" because we make both for each other, but you should be able to buy hardware or software independently of each other.
If MS sells they own laptops with bundled windows, they will have an incentive to make adjustments so other hardware products are less competitive. Long term, we'll end up with Apple/MS monopoly on devices where you don't have a vote on how your system works and what data it sends to whom.
This means that it should be possible to install any OS on readers / phones / laptops / consoles and vote with your own money against shovelware (hello, smart TVs).
> Consumers should have the right to decline pre-installed software As a consumer I should also have the right to free ice cream and a pony ride. Many of us have tried to start or run businesses small or large. Does it make any sense for a government to start telling us what software the business should use or not use? Consumers already have the right to decline pre-installed software: don't buy the laptop. There, yo…
I see your point, but this doesn't seem to be in good faith. There's a distinct difference between ice cream and pony rides (which would be, awesome, with a new laptop) - and a business practice which maintains a monopoly on consumer hardware. I think it's reasonable for manufactures putting their own software on (I.e., Mac or Microsoft devices running what they want), but all other hardware manufactures only offerin…
What's the importance difference?
I make the analogy to highlight that just because something is desirable to a consumer doesn't mean we should have laws to enforce it.
The theory and law around monopolies is something I know at only a surface level. Up until I read Thiel's Zero to One I would have told you monopolies are bad but his chapter comparing airlines to Google made me question this.
> Consumers should have the right to decline pre-installed software As a consumer I should also have the right to free ice cream and a pony ride. Many of us have tried to start or run businesses small or large. Does it make any sense for a government to start telling us what software the business should use or not use? Consumers already have the right to decline pre-installed software: don't buy the laptop. There, yo…
If you don't like Cyclospora , don't buy lettuce infected with it. Similar regulatory problems, at least with the lettuce the diarrhea is temporary.
> Consumers should have the right to decline pre-installed software As a consumer I should also have the right to free ice cream and a pony ride. Many of us have tried to start or run businesses small or large. Does it make any sense for a government to start telling us what software the business should use or not use? Consumers already have the right to decline pre-installed software: don't buy the laptop. There, yo…
This is so incredibly naive. You're basically saying no consumer laws should exist at all. Any commercial activity is fine no matter how underhanded.
> Consumers should have the right to decline pre-installed software As a consumer I should also have the right to free ice cream and a pony ride. Many of us have tried to start or run businesses small or large. Does it make any sense for a government to start telling us what software the business should use or not use? Consumers already have the right to decline pre-installed software: don't buy the laptop. There, yo…
This is such a boomer coded 'deal with it' take. The manufacturer is going to charge you a premium for the software license. If you never intend to use that license, it's completely reasonable to think that we could live in a world where you could uncheck a box and avoid that altogether.