This is why Microsoft annoys the crap out of me.
Microsoft plans to offer PC makers steep discounts on Windows XP Home Edition to encourage them to use that OS instead of Linux on ultra low-cost PCs (ULPCs). To be eligible, however, the PC vendors that make ULPCs must limit screen sizes to 10.2 inches and hard drives to 80G bytes, and they cannot offer touch-screen PCs.
This irks me because Microsoft has no interest in providing quality low-cost computers, they only have an interest in making sure that people don’t use something else
Granted, most computer makers don’t have much interest in making low-cost computers either because they know what 90% of users out there don’t care what they use so long as they can read their email and browse the web. Regardless, whenever I hear news like this it reminds me that Microsoft is the king of the mountain not because they make a great product that everyone wants to use but because they make “back room” deals to make sure that everyone has to use their product.
(Via Daring Fireball.)