[sugar] [support-gang] Microsoft

[Simon Schampijer]

david at lang.hm wrote:
> On Thu, 15 May 2008, Steve Holton wrote:
> 
>> On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 8:03 PM, Seth Woodworth <seth at isforinsects.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Let's look at this with a slightly different lens before we blow up 
>>> on NN
>>> and Microsoft.
>>>
>>> What does this agreement equate to?  And what are the alternatives to
>>> Microsoft?
>>>
>>> If the XO was running a completely closed source stack with no
>>> documentation on hardware, how would the Linux community feel?  They 
>>> would
>>> feel that they were being shut out and not allowed to run whatever 
>>> software
>>> they wanted to or develop.  This is something the linux community has
>>> speared hardware companies over for years.
>>
>>
>> ...and to which the free software (linux) community would respond with a
>> reverse engineering effort, at it's own (collective) expense, and rather
>> quickly have a solution.  If turnabout is fair play, let Microsoft 
>> adopt the
>> free software community response as well.
>>
>> (When Cisco modified their WRT54G hardware so that Linux could no longer
>> run, the response was to strip-down the gnu/linux stack even more 
>> until it
>> would run again.)
>>
>> It's doubtful the free software community would do what Microsoft is
>> demanding: asking the manufacturer to add 5-10% to the cost of the 
>> hardware
>> to facilitate their efforts, nor would the free software community 
>> charge a
>> $3.00 license fee for the use thereafter.
> 
> I missed where the hardware was being changed and the cost going up to 
> support this. what I read was that the boot firmware was being modified 
> so that it could dual-boot into windows.
> 
> please point me at the additional cost involved.
> 
> David Lang

from: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/16/technology/16laptop.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

"Windows will add a bit to the price of the machines, about $3, the licensing 
fee Microsoft charges to some developing nations under a program called 
Unlimited Potential. For those nations that want dual-boot models, running both 
Windows and Linux, the extra hardware required will add another $7 or so to the 
cost of the machines, Mr. Negroponte said."

Simon