[ Thanks to Roy
Schestowitz for this link. ]
“SOME PEOPLE wish to know why certain shop cease to
sell GNU/Linux-powered computers (or sub-notebooks with GNU/Linux),
or in some cases no longer make available GNU/Linux with comparable
hardware. The truth of the matter is that Microsoft systematically
sets the prices to deny GNU/Linux entry into the market.“We have just pulled an antitrust exhibit which shows what
Microsoft is doing. As far as we are aware, this exhibit was never
published or used by the courts before. The full exhibit (2003)
[PDF] can be found as text at the bottom of this post. Here is the
gist:“They are considering Mandrake, Debian, Red Hat and Open Office
because of their upfront costs. HP is quoting their system to
include both the Windows O/S ($80) and MS Works ($15) for an
overall software acquisition cost of $95 for the O/S and
Application Suite The Open Source alternatives are $8.50 for the
O/S of choice which is currently Madrake (Open Office is $0.00). As
you can see, we have a price delta of $85 between the MS solution
and the Open Source solution.”