windows tax?
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| tuxchick May 01, 2007 9:59 AM EDT |
Soooo...will Dell's Ubuntu customers still be paying the Windows tax? |
| jdixon May 01, 2007 10:32 AM EDT |
> ...will Dell's Ubuntu customers still be paying the Windows tax? That is the $64000 question, isn't it? |
| jezuch May 01, 2007 2:18 PM EDT |
...or the Ubuntu tax? |
| techiem2 May 01, 2007 2:22 PM EDT |
Quoting:...or the Ubuntu tax? Is that the one that comes with your official "Ubuntu Fanboi" card? |
| Teron May 02, 2007 6:35 AM EDT |
Probably will. Per-proc agreements, if they exist... |
| pogson May 02, 2007 9:46 AM EDT |
It looks as though the tax is where it belongs, on the Windows machines:
740n is $372 and 740 is $725 http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=5... http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/optix_n?c... Maybe Dell has figured out that folks willing to pay for Windows do not mind paying a lot. On the other had people wanting free (beer and lunch) software want to see the difference. |
| Aladdin_Sane May 02, 2007 11:53 AM EDT |
Where's the catch? > 740n is $372 and 740 is $725 I've gone over the two links, and it looks like you're right. But it's unprecedented. The only apples-oranges problem I saw is that the 740n has *no* optical drive by default: From my technical point of view, offering a system with no exposed drive whatsoever is a config mistake, but only adds $40 to the price to get one. |
| jdixon May 02, 2007 3:32 PM EDT |
> ...But it's unprecedented. Agreed. Everytime I've tried to build an N system, I've come out with the same or greater price than a full Windows system. I wonder what's different this time, especially to give a $350 price difference. OK, if I build a 740 from scratch, I get $402??? $75 of that is the difference between XP Home and XP Professional, but where does the other $275 come from? |
| Sander_Marechal May 02, 2007 3:39 PM EDT |
Quoting:but where does the other $275 come from? Vista tax? |
| jdixon May 02, 2007 5:46 PM EDT |
> Vista tax? No, it comes with XP Professional. I'm at a loss to explain the difference. |
| Aladdin_Sane May 02, 2007 7:09 PM EDT |
> No, it comes with XP Professional. It is presumed, but rarely confirmed, that OEM's like Dell pay an MS tax per system sold, despite this being completely illegal, and contravening the intent of the DOJ v MS settlement. The general idea being circumvention via other contractual methods, not really a problem in American contract law that I understand. But why the OEM's sign the contracts in this day-and-age totally mystifies me. Without the coercive contracts, the word "tax" would not apply. Instead, like the initial 1 year warranty sold on basically all Dell systems, merely a "hidden cost." |
| Sander_Marechal May 02, 2007 9:52 PM EDT |
Quoting:No, it comes with XP Professional. Doesn't matter. That's why it's called a "tax". Does it come with a Vista upgrade coupon per chance? I noticed that here in The Netherlands it's hard to find XP without the Vista coupon, and in those cases you actually pay the full Vista Ultimate or Business price for your XP disks. |
| jdixon May 03, 2007 2:39 AM EDT |
> and in those cases you actually pay the full Vista Ultimate or Business price for your XP disks. That would do it, yes, but as far as I can tell, there's no Vista upgrade included. |
| number6x May 03, 2007 5:50 AM EDT |
Maybe the incentives Microsoft gives for OEM's to ship its OS no longer apply to Windows XP? It would make sense that Microsoft would only spend marketing dollars in a way that would get OEM's to switch to Vista, and create a disincentive to ship XP. Could the cost for XP be greater than the cost of Vista for the big OEM's right now? It could also be that the machine is a vanilla business box and is not loaded with desktop craplets, so those dollars are not there to offset the cost of Windows. (There is no cost for the FreeDOS OS). |
| jdixon May 03, 2007 6:42 AM EDT |
> Could the cost for XP be greater than the cost of Vista for the big OEM's right now? It doesn't seem to be. The test 760 box I put together for $402 is with XP Home, and XP professional is only $75 more. I can't see any reason I can put together the same box for $402 and yet his link gives $725. I'll do some more research if I have time over lunch. |
| dinotrac May 03, 2007 7:44 AM EDT |
Hmmm.... The 740N seems to benefit from a $150 promotion at the moment, that would eat heavily into the $275. Add a PC speaker ($10), a CD driver (though a plain CD drive isn't offered) and Windows, and you've squared the deals up pretty well. |
| jdixon May 03, 2007 12:34 PM EDT |
Well, doing my best to duplicate the above machine on Dell's site, I come up with a cost of $527, not $725. There are a few differences: My OS code is XPPP5H while the one above is XPP232E, my system includes a resource CD, my support/warranty code is Q3YOS while that of the above system is PAD3YR, and his system includes the cost of shipping. Those are the only differences I can find. As Dino notes, the 740N is $150 off at this time, so if the shipping is $50 that makes all the difference. |
| tuxchick May 03, 2007 12:57 PM EDT |
How hard do you have to work to do this?? |
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