I must apologize... 10091

An absurd notion at best, Peter. I would defy you to defend it!

As to what Microsoft might have done vis-a-vis the OEMs in the past, it all comes down to building their brand by insisting on a consistent presentation of Windows regardless of the channel delivering it. To make that happen, Microsoft deeply discounted Windows to make it attractive to the OEMs to adhere to the Microsoft presentation standards in exchange for the low price of the OEM version. As it turned out, it was a very good idea and it worked quite well for Microsoft.

It takes a very biased atbreastude to turn this incentive into a compulsion, Peter. You need to be a lot more open minded.

Even so, the COLA MS bashers continue to dredge up this myth citing the very lack of interest on the OEMs part that there must be a deep conspiracy that ignores the DOJ Debt Settlement and remains hidden by the very group that is the most oppressed. That is a far, far reach and you ought to be kind of embarrbutted that you have to invoke it to try to make a point. The strongly anti-MS DOJ under Reno had all the facts, it would seem, and deposed the CEO of BeOS and reviewed the Hitachi contracts and all the other OEM contracts in effect as part of the general discovery and yet they failed to prosecute what would have been a significant charge. But you and the COLA folk apparently know more than the DOJ and more than the states' AGs and regularly cite this conspiracy as proof of Microsoft infamy. Lame-O!