Microsoft has started to pressure PC builders to always include a copy of Windows with new PCs. Microsoft’s head woman for its Anti-piracy section, Michala Alexander, has in Microsoft’s Partner Update Magazine, that is sent out to retailers, said that it doesn’t want to see any computer systems being sold without a preinstalled operating system. 5% of all computers in Great Britain are sold without an operating system and that is a figure it intends to lower. ”We want to urge all system builders — indeed, all Partners — not to supply naked PCs. It is a risk to your customers and a risk to your business — with specifically 5 percent fewer opportunities to market software and services,” What is perhaps the most interesting here is what may happen if you as a consumer buy a ”naked PC” I.e. without an OS. Microsoft will aparently hire personel to travel around and visit consumers who bought these systems to find out if they’ve installed any pirated software. That some purchase computers to use free alternatives to Microsoft Windows seem to have been completely left out in these equations and this has in turn angered FSF Europe (Free Software Foundation) that sincerely hope that the computer retailers will not support Microsoft here. Michala Alexander was contacted by ZD Net regarding her statement, but she denied it and claimed it to be a copy error and that Microsoft has no intention of hiring personel to roam the country looking for pirates. If Microsoft would try something like that we can surely say that they would anger more than just a few people. Source: ZD net
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