In comp.os.linux.advocacy, [H]omer
<spam@xxxxxxx>
wrote
on Tue, 08 May 2007 23:24:02 +0100
<2t97h4-5ah.ln1@xxxxxxxxxx>:
> Verily I say unto thee, that The Ghost In The Machine spake thusly:
>
>> Dell is *such* a tease, aren't they? :-) To be sure, I'd be
>> satisfied with an OpenDesktop with FreeDOS, since I already have
>> Linux-capable equipment -- just burn a Ubuntu or Gentoo and shove it
>> in its face, and I'm good to go.
>>
>> But a total n00b with his first-ever computer might be a little
>> harder to set up
>
> Pre-installing Linux is not just about catering to noobs, or saving
> money on a Microsoft product you'll never use, though. It's also about
> redressing the skewed metrics of Linux deployment that goes uncounted,
> due to lack of Point Of Sales figures for something that isn't sold ...
> freely re-distributable Linux distros.
>
> Part of the reason that games devs and hardware manufacturers don't
> support Linux to the same extent as Windows, is because of this 1% myth
> (no demand). If major OEMs start actually *selling* pre-installed Linux
> machines, the *reality* of Linux deployment becomes manifest, and these
> devs/manufacturers start taking more of an interest.
>
It'll be interesting to watch as this movement continues.
Of course Microsoft has a vested interest in continuing
their monopoly, but at this point Microsoft has proven
itself very adept at shooting itself in the foot; one
wonders how they still have feet left.
One issue is the inherent duplicatibility of data expressed
in binary form; there's only so much one can do to prevent
user A from getting a disk from user B and copying it onto
his machine in a usable form. Dongles died, various copy
protection schemes using floppies -- ah, I remember the
"gronk gronk grind gronk" well of the Amiga days -- were
sidestepped, various paper protection devices ("Please look
up character 5 of word 7 of paragraph 22 of page 19 in the
Silly Little Story Manual That Came With Your Game(tm)")
got toasted, and ultimately the Internet shares all sorts
of cracks and such, as evidenced just the other day with
the infamous 09F9 DVD key.
Whoops!
How about it Dell? Stop teasing us already. :-) Or
perhaps we just need some patience -- after all, it's
going to take a few just to edit their super-complicated
slightly mucky website properly, wedging in new machines.
Of course ideally they'd edit all of their machines to
include a Ubuntu, Fedora, or other such option, a la
http://eracks.com/products/Desktops/config?sku=FOCUS
which offers over 2 dozen distros -- some of them payware.
--
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
New Technology? Not There. No Thanks.
--
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