posted in Technology

Mereo@mereo@piefed.ca

Amid RAM price hikes, Microsoft reportedly raises Windows license cost, forcing OEMs to hike prices even further on hardware

www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/amid-ram-price-hikes-microsoft-reportedly-raises-windows-license-cost-forcing-oems-to-hike-prices-even-further-on-hardware
Windows 11 Hero Surfaces on a white tableWindows CentralWindows 11 license fee hikes contributing to higher laptop prices, says reportA new report claims Microsoft has raised the cost of the Windows license by up to 10% for certain OEMs, which is much higher than usual.
Brkdncr@Brkdncr@lemmy.world
edited

Replying to @⁨Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz⁩

They used to have agreements to make it difficult to do so. I don’t know if that’s still the case but it’s pretty awful. I think OEMs had to pay licenses for every machine shipped regardless if it had a windows license.

The other issue is that oems have a large amount of compatibility and support built up over the years for windows. They also know their customers can deal with Microsoft for “support” and ignore driver and support costs for whatever distro of Linux they were to choose.

Sure an OEM could lead the way and show everyone else the path to freedom but think of the shareholders