On Wed, May 01, 2002 at 12:02:32PM +0100, cout at eircom.net wrote:
> I think that eveyone will find that it is always the case that you 'must' provide the customer the ability to 'restore' their system to the state it was in when it was bought.
Dell seem to no longer supply reinstall media for XP unless you specifically
request it. And it seems that it isn't even an option on all machines.
Not only do they not even supply a "real" Windows XP install cd, they
don't even supply a cd which would restore the machine to its factory
default state. (Unless you ask for one.)
Oh, and apparently you need to ask for one at the time of purchase. It's
no good ringing them up sometime after purchase to ask where the XP
restore CD is.
Personally, I blame Microsoft.
It's all very cunning/clever/devious...
Because those OEM Windows booklets with licences on the front cover were too
expensive to produce, they moved to licence stickers on the machines.
Because generic media was being shared too much, they moved to machine-bound
restore media. In theory, *your* CD would only install Windows on *your*
machine. Even then, it wouldn't really "install" windows; it would just
bring your machine back to a state almost but not completely unlike that
in which it left the factory. (Bummer if you've repartitioned the hard
drive and want to reinstall windows...)
So they've taken the next logical step. Don't supply any media unless
it is specifically asked for. That way, if the user later needs to
reinstall Windows, they'll have to go buy a new copy.
Microsoft seem now to be in the business of selling those nice licence
stickers. I wonder how long it will be before they stop doing that.
Summary: Dell sell machines without the means to reinstall the shipped OS.
Judgement: It's good for linux. If people have to pay Real Money to
reinstall Windows (if and when their installation becomes corrupt) and don't
have to pay to install linux, it seems inevitable that there will be *some*
uptake of linux...
Wesley.
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