Tax reduction

Doghouse – Tariffs

Article from Issue 295/2025
Author(s):

Customers can significantly reduce the tariffs on their software by choosing open source.

While I was working at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the early 1980s, an interesting business practice came to my attention: the concept of "bundling" an operating system.

Before this practice, a person could buy their hardware and software separately. For server systems, this is still the practice. For desktop, laptop, and other smaller systems, it became the practice of manufacturers to install a particular operating system. That operating system was Microsoft.

There are practical reasons for bundling. The retail stores didn't have to install the operating system to show potential customers that the hardware worked, and the machine's speed and capabilities could be compared to other systems on display. The customer could then take the system home with the operating system installed and working properly.

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