Yet another attempt to buy customers. This time with zero% loans! Perhaps I should go take that loan and rebuild my infrastructure. Last time I checked, no other industry has vendor financing that is zero%. What happens if the customers default? I would love to see MS take the machines/software back.

From an economic point of view it is perfectly acceptable. Vendors/manufacturers have always given incentives to customers. It helps to build market, and possibly new opportunities. What is not immediately obvious here is what Ts&Cs would the loan come with? Would a MS funded environment exclude running Linux? OSX? Hardware and software is not like cars for example. If I took a manufacturer’s loan to buy a car, because I obviously cannot put in parts from another make – the car industry is not COTS – or at least, not yet, there will be no terms to restrict me. There might be terms that void the warranty if I use “compatible” parts, but then again, the car maker can be sued for bad design, faulty brakes etc. Can we do the same thing to M$ for their products? They already force their customers to accept a “no warranty” status.

Finally, M$ has some meaning!