Comment by close04
2 years ago
> its silly paying thousands of dollars for a computer and only getting a basic version of Windows
It very well may be but this one is not on Microsoft. Using their power to force decisions onto others is one easy way to land in hot(ter) water. This would probably be an abuse of dominant position which everyone wants less of.
OEMs have more negotiating power than regular users so it's no easy or cheap feat to force them. Arbitrarily defining which licenses can work with what hardware makes everything complicated for everyone, it needs constant updating as the hardware changes, it needs a lot of assumptions on how the user uses the PC, would probably create the garden variety loophole hunt for tricking the system.
The sensible choice here is to go for a product that really fits your needs especially since that market is very well served by competition. You have dozens of competitors and even the DYI option. You're not buying a black box. It can be a gaming PC with Windows Home just as it can be a gaming PC with a 4060 GPU. Nvidia or MS should have no say in what a vendor can sell.
They don't need to force anything, they could just negotiate a favorable license cost, and make sure people aren't getting mediocre versions of Windows after spending over a thousand dollars on a Windows machine. I'm definitely going to be buying System76 for my next desktop.
> and make sure people aren't getting mediocre versions of Windows after spending over a thousand dollars on a Windows machine.
You already had everything you needed to make sure of that, you said you're a pro user. You're running away from your very basic responsibility of looking at the spec sheet, and you're blaming Microsoft or the OEM for this. You chose a Windows Home system probably because it was cheaper than others. This is one way it was cheaper, you probably got the Home license for free".
Many people would go for cheaper or no license in order to get better hardware. MS is already strong arming OEMs to bundle Windows licenses, they should absolutely not use their power to force them even more.
> I'm definitely going to be buying System76 for my next desktop
Perfectly valid (and great) choice. But you could pay a whopping $82.000 for a workstation and it doesn't come with a Windows Pro/Enterprise license or RHEL Workstation Standard (lifetime, not just the one year) subscription. MS and IBM should absolutely make sure one of these licenses is included with any system over $1k. :)