Dan Wineman on the Windows OEM sticker-agreement:
I find it interesting because of its frankness. Want to build a device that runs Windows? Great, here’s how to make it ugly. No, sorry, ugly is mandatory. A legal license includes CD, manual, and ugliness. You must.
When I mocked HP for including a physical label tray on their Slate 500 tablet, several people replied that this is required by Microsoft, it’s in the agreement and that’s that.
So if you’re building a presumably sleek, design-y product, go talk to Microsoft and have them drop the requirement. What do HP’s execs think they get paid to do?
I’m sure AT&T’s “standard agreement” with their phone vendors includes something like, “thou shalt prominently display the AT&T logo on thy device, no smaller than one quarter of a handbreadth.” And I’m sure that when this came up during Apple’s first negotiations with AT&T about carrying the iPhone, Steve Jobs lol’d and told them to gtfo.
That’s what he gets paid to do.
