04.30.09
Gemini version available ♊︎Are Microsoft’s Sub-notebook Kickbacks Now Confirmed?
Summary: Microsoft is said to be selling Windows XP “below cost to OEMs”
GROKLAW MAY have just found the ‘smoking gun’ we have been looking for ever since it came to our attention that ASUS had allegedly received money from Microsoft in order to demote GNU/Linux. According to SJVN over at IDG:
[R]eluctantly, Microsoft gave Windows XP Home a new lease on life and sold it below cost to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to kill the Linux desktop at the root.
Pamela Jones adds: “Are monopolies allowed to sell below cost to kill off a competitor? EU Commission? Anyone?”
If the EU Commission actually decides to investigate this*, then it should also take a careful look at Microsoft’s anti-Linux dumping in Russia and in Turkey. To pay people to suffocate the competition is the same type of felony that — as shared just moments ago — Intel will need to pay $1.3 billion in fines for (in Europe alone). █
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* The Commission appears to have neglected and eventually turned a blind eye to the OOXML crimes.