So why aren't there any dual-boot computers for sale? The answer lies
in the nature of the relationship Microsoft maintains with hardware
vendors. More specifically, in the "Windows License" agreed to by
hardware vendors who want to include Windows on the computers they
sell. This is not the license you pretend to read and click "I Accept"
when installing Windows. This license is not available online. This is
a confidential license, seen only by Microsoft and computer
vendors. You and I can't read the license because Microsoft classifies
it as a "trade secret." The license specifies that any machine which
includes a Microsoft operating system must not also offer a
nonMicrosoft operating system as a boot option. In other words, a
computer that offers to boot into Windows upon startup cannot also
offer to boot into BeOS or Linux. The hardware vendor does not get to
choose which OSes to install on the machines they sell--Microsoft does.
<p>
"Must not?" What, does Microsoft hold a gun to the vendor's head? Not
quite, but that wouldn't be a hyperbolic metaphor. Instead, Microsoft
threatens to revoke the vendor's license to include Windows on the
machine if the bootloader license is violated. Because the world runs
on Windows, no hardware vendor can afford to ship machines that don't
include Windows alongside whatever alternative they might want to
offer.
<hr>
Lifted from a Byte <a href="http://www.byte.com/documents/s=1115/byt20010824s0001/">
article by Scott Hacker</a> on the demise of BeOS