back to article Microsoft's Dell billions have Windows 8 strings attached

If you can't beat them, join them, or - if you're Microsoft - infiltrate them. Just be careful not to go in too deep. Microsoft has recently developed a clever approach to launching into markets where it has previously failed or is currently failing: rather than buy an existing name, Microsoft has become its partner. To boost …

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  1. El Andy

    "Also, The Reg was told, when consumers walked into shops expecting to see Windows 8 machines and didn't see any, they bought PCs running Windows 7 instead"

    Hang on a minute. If consumers were going in planning to buy Windows 8 PCs and then, faced with none, ended up buying Windows 7 machines, how can that possibly be anything other than the OEM/Vendors fault? It would seem to suggest that the boys from Redmond might be onto something when they suggest OEMs just aren't producing the things people actually want to buy....

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      You've got a point there. The article was a bit confused. Not only did it say that about Win7/Win8, but it also said the OEMs had ignored Microsoft's strategy, and then that this strategy had failed. Well both can't be true. Either MS's strategy has been tried and failed, or it's not been tried - in which case we don't know if it'll subsequently fail or not.

      1. Levente Szileszky
        Stop

        No, MS simply wanted OEMs to *FORCE* us onto this pile of junk called W8...

        ...and, understandably, OEMs refused to do so and since W8 by itself is a stinking pile of sh** nobody's really buying it and MS is blaming everybody left and right for not forcing that half-baked crap down on our throat.

        Well, I say FO to the Ballmerian gang and thank you for Dell, Sony, HP, Acer, Lenovo etc for not signing up for the angry, fat, bald beancounter's 'protection racket' and letting me choose what I buy.

    2. Richard Plinston

      didn't see any

      > to see Windows 8 machines and didn't see any,

      I find that _very_ hard to believe. Around here they were wall to wall.

      I think that the _actual_ explanation is that they _did_ see Windows 8 and bought Windows 7 instead. In fact they probably bought Windows 7 before it was too late and they were forced onto 8.

  2. kororas
    Trollface

    Dell going private - good move imo.

    Letting MS in on the party - bad, very bad.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The assumption is that the investment is for hardware, Dell own Quest Software, which develop a HUGE stack of enterprise supporting software and services business.

    This could be a way to integrate some of the Quest toolsets into the core server OS better, akin to taking on IBM rather than Apple, as enterprise is where the money margins still are, not consumer kit. Ask Larry how many tablets he's sold this week...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    As a Dell employee, I think all the internal emails about the XPS 10 that we're getting sum up how well this Microsoft deal will go.

    XPS 10 is Dell's version of the Surface RT. Pretty much as soon as this launched we've been getting emails about a "great offer" to own one, with a far, far bigger staff discount that the (terrible) discount we normally get. This is something that never happens - Its cheaper to buy a Dell from PC World(!!!) than using the staff discount and buying direct, and the response from senior management has been "well then, go to PC world"

    The volume and frequency of these literally begging emails to buy this RT indicates theres a warehouse in China stuffed to the gunnels with this piece of junk that Microsoft dictated and nobody wants.

    They can try and blame OEM's, but this is one OEM that rolled over and did exactly what Balmer requested. Net result is Michael Dells next purchase is going to be a excavator, to dig a gargantuan hole to bury all these unwanted and unsold units.

    Icing on the cake was our Windows 2012 training, with course materials provided directly by Microsoft. The first four or five slides were all about why a touch interface is a good idea on a server - First time I've ever heard a whole classroom howl with laughter at an operating system training slide deck!

    1. Levente Szileszky
      WTF?

      THX for this story - it clearly shows the level of incompetency and arrogance at Ballmer's MSFT

      "The first four or five slides were all about why a touch interface is a good idea on a server - First time I've ever heard a whole classroom howl with laughter at an operating system training slide deck!"

      This. No further comment is necessary, it literally sums up everything you have to know about Ballmer's utterly clueless management, just how broken this company is..

  5. Levente Szileszky
    FAIL

    If you are MSFT and you cannot beat them because you are incompetent and clueless...

    ...like the fat, bald, chair-throwing beancounter CEO then you will waste money on stupid things like Skype etc.

    You might establish some presence but surely people will take notice and will know that you are utterly incompetent, stock remains in the tank etc so eventually you will get fired. The question is: WHEN WILL BALLMER et al BE BOOTED?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    3 is 10% of 20?

    How sad to think back on the golden days when El Reg was a truly technical site hoping to achieve official recognition for its own set of units.

    Oh wait, perhaps this is one of the new units?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    When will M$ sort the ASLR out?

    http://kingcope.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/attacking-the-windows-78-address-space-randomization/

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Addition to the script

    Now when consumers call in, if they are not running that latest Windows OS they will offer a paid upgrade for the consumer to buy.

  9. uncoveror
    Stop

    Marriage made in hell

    Microsoft acquiring interest in Dell would be a disaster. Steve Ballmer and his lackeys could not manage their way out of a wet paper bag.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    In other words, Dell will the the next Nokia

    Once market leader becomes another struggling OEM bitch of Microsoft.

    Michael Dell had better watch his back amidst the infiltration.

    Microsoft can never, ever, ever be trusted.

  11. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    $499? Feh.

    $499? Feh. Just put like $800 of hardware into it and mark it up to an even $2000. Look at THAT margin! But seriously, Microsoft has lost their mind; blaming OEMs for Windows 8's failure is a fail in and of itself. The fact is, the makers know what is selling, and it is the lower end machines. Why? They have enough power to do what most people want, and they'd rather keep those extra $100s in their pocket (or, to spend on food, electricity, and rent.) I got a netbook, and since I kept Windows far from it (it has Ubuntu 12.04), even the 1.3ghz one is fast enough.

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