> -----Original Message-----
> From: Greg A. Woods [mailto:woods@weird.com]=20

[...]

> In other words Apple's doing what almost everybody _but_ M$ have done
> all along in this industry!  =20

Apple obviously doesn't want to infringe on its own market or enable
other people to make it obsolete.  If your company exists to make money
(and most do, now that the tech bubble has burst), then it's not very
intelligent to undercut yourself or help other people eliminate you.
IIUC, Sun and HP both do essentially the same thing. =20

Also, at companies that make hardware, Software engineers are generally
second-class citizens.  This is usually why, IMHO, they produce terrible
driver code, but it also means that porting to other hardware (or
supporting same) is never considered a priority.

> M$ has effectively had to resort to
> nefrious business practices in order to convince the=20
> otherwise independent hardware makers to lock buyers into=20
> using M$'s software.

To which "nefrious" (sic) business practices do you refer?  I'd never
accuse MS of sainthood, but do bear in mind that at least 80% of what
people say about the "Evil Empire" is pure speculation.

> Maybe if most of the "PC" makers were to do what Wallmart is=20
> apparently doing then Apple (or some spin-off of its OS=20
> group, like Taligent was
> IIRC) and M$ could compete on a much more even playing=20
> ground. =20

AFAICT, anyone can offer PCs without an installed OS.  However, when you
build and sell PCs on the scale that the likes of (example) Dell and
Gateway do, the big question becomes whether it's worth the investment
given the potential payoff.  In the Client OS world, most users don't
want to dabble with choosing an OS-- they buy a Mac (and expect MacOS)
or they buy a PC (and expect Windows). =20