Un-Bundle Operating Systems? Not likely

Michael Gartenberg | September 24, 2007, 11:20 AM

This news from some place called the Globalisation Institute is making some rounds (or is it with a z?) Basic thesis is that PC vendors must un-bundle Windows. Sheesh. First, this is hardly an original thought and most consumers have no interest in it. That's because there's value associated with the Windows eco-system. There are plenty of PCs that are available without any OS, it's just that very few people buy them. Would Apple be allowed to sell Macintosh computers with Mac OS? That differentiation is a core part of their business model. There is every reason that operating systems are not like hard drives or processors (and note, hard drives and processors that didn't conform to the PC standard dies. Anyone remember MIPS? Alpha? SPARC? PowerPC and all the other processors that didn't run Intel code).

I didn't read the whole report but based on the e-mail I received from them, it shows a total lack of understanding of the PC market, the value current systems have for consumers and positive feedback loop of the PC eco system that keeps selling more PCs.

Overall, this was both naive and silly at the same time. Unbundling would not reduce costs (and less than 10% of the cost of software over the life of a PC comes from software acquisition costs) and choice is a bit of a myth. Users want choice when what they have is lacking. Users can choose to use Linux or Mac OS, many do and many more don't.