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Vista, they could have just sent the copy of the OS without a top of
the line laptop with it. They did this with XP. I understand giving
away evalutation copys of Vista, they are trying to show thier
product. It's the third party hardware and lack of a return policy
that makes it not right.
Well, it seems to me we've just seen the where the line could be drawn.
No ethical journalist would EVER accept a free laptop from Microsoft. Simple as that.
To try and claim it is an evaluation laptop from Acer is a cop out since the return address on the package is not Acer's address, but Microsoft's address,
I say it's high time bloggers became regulated. If you're a blogger, and you want to claim you are a journalist, you should be held up to the same standards as journalists.
An association should be created for bloggers. Anyone who joins the association should have the same protections as journalists so long as they agree to a set of ethical standards.
Anyone who is not a member of this association would not be considered a journalist, and not afforded the protections of a journalist.
The way it stands now, any criminal who writes in a blog regarding crimes he knows about can claim to be a journalist, and that he should be afforded the same protection as any menber of the press.
We all know this is BS. Just because you write about something in a public forum doesn't make you a journalist. Along the same lines of thought, just because I design and build something, does not make me an engineer.
A bribe by any other name smells just as bad.
http://morewally.com/cs/blogs/wallym/archive/2006/12/29/626.aspx
http://morewally.com/cs/blogs/wallym/archive/2006/12/28/624.aspx
In the case of Vista/Office 2007, you can't expect MS to just send the OS and Apps. Since that's the case, one also wouldn't expect them to send out a preloaded machine at the lower end of the spectrum.
I'm sure MS is open to any alternative suggestions you might have.
Microsoft receives machines from all the top OEM companies all the time for testing. Before you can get that "Made for XP /Vista" sticker, you have to submit your machines for testing. Those OEM's don't want the machines back, so... yeah. Is that favortism? No, it's just the standard way of doing things.
The only time you'll find that OEM's want their products back is if it's such a high end product or expensive item that it can be sent out to multiple reviewers (automobiles for example).
This is not a Microsoft issue. This is just the way industries operate. This is not unusual.
- a Dell = a sample; a Ferrari = a bribe
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by iokinetics
January 1, 2007 11:05 PM PST
- a Dell = a sample
-
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