Ralph Nader
P.O. Box 19312, Washington, DC 20036
Ralph@essential.org


James Love
Consumer Project on Technology
P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
http://www.cptech.org |  202.387.8030 | love@cptech.org

 

March 9, 1998
 

Michael Dell
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Dell Computer Corporation
One Dell Way
Round Rock, TX  78682
Fax 512 728 8366

Dear Mr. Dell:

 We are writing to make a simple request --  offer your customers choices.  Give them the option of buying a PC computer without Microsoft Windows.   Continue to offer customers the opportunity to buy a PC with MS Windows pre-installed, but don’t make this mandatory.  Don’t make this the only way that a customer can buy a personal computer.

 Today there exist several alternative operating systems, and there are customers who are willing to try and who want to try alternatives.
 
 As you know, there are many benefits to the consumer when the OEM ships a computer with an OS already installed.  Among other things, the consumer expects that the hardware will be a feasible configuration for the OS.  The ease of initial setup is also an important consideration for many customers.

We ask that you offer the option of at least some alternative to the Windows OS. Alternatives do exist which should be available to consumers.   For example, there is clearly a growing interest in the Linux platform.  It is our understanding that major OEMs have rejected requests to offer PCs pre-loaded with Linux, even by mail order.  This is a very large barrier for this increasingly popular alternative.  There are other alternatives as well.  Soon the highly reviewed BeOS will debut for the Intel platform.  Other OS alternatives are or will be available for this hardware platform, including Caldera’s Open Dos/ Spider technology or Apple’s Rhapsody.

Yet another alternative to consider are dual boot machines, that would run Window plus another OS.  This is becoming far more appealing as computers ship with large disk drives.  With a dual boot option, which works with off the shelf software, consumers could experiment, and have the best of both worlds.
 
There is much talk about consumers having chosen Microsoft’s OS, but if consumers can only buy computers with Windows pre-installed, competition clearly suffers.

We believe consumers would benefit from more OS competition.  Many of the alternatives to Windows are far more open systems, are far more fault tolerant, and require less hardware resources.  The rise of the Internet has created an environment whereby consumers can easily exchange information using standard Internet protocols and standards, such as ftp, Internet email or HTML.   The increasing use of Java makes cross platform program development easier.  These developments in technology make alternative OSs more attractive to consumers, since data is less a prisoner to a legacy OS.   While Microsoft has been accused of trying to destroy the Internet’s system of open standards, and Java’s cross platform nature, this hasn’t occurred yet.  With more competition in the PC OS market, the entire Internet system, which is based upon interoperability, is more likely to grow and prosper.

Please let us know your firm’s plans to offer consumers a choice for an OS.
 

Sincerely,
 
 

Ralph Nader
 

James Love


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