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On 26/06/11 00:31, Grant Sewell wrote:
I think the point is that (before Linux became mainstream) Microsoft didn't want machines being sold without (their) operating system to reduce the incentive to buy a "blank" machine and then install a "pirate" copy of their OS. In order to achieve this Microsoft said, we will let you put Microsoft on the units you sell at a much reduced price so long as you guarantee that ALL units have "An operating system". This is why trying to buy a unit without an operating system is more expensive than buying one with. Now I don't think that Microsoft could say we will give a discount if you ONLY put Microsoft on units because that would be blatant anti competitive trading, but there is nothing to stop them from trading at a lower price under contractual agreement with the distributor. Big distributors, however are now so used to this model of operation, its going to be a hard sell for anyone to offer anything different. From the Distributors point of view, they are not going to sell many units without an operating system... lets face it very few people do install their own operating system. And even ubuntu and RedHat are not household names (in the same way that Microsoft is). If they are bound by contract to put something on there they are going to go for what is considered to be most popular. If some authority was to step in and tell the distributors that they could no longer work under these contracts then the price would go up for the most popular OS on the planet, in which case the authority could find themselves facing anti-competitive charges from the distributors, and so the vicious circle continues..... The only way to break this it to work from the bottom up, and that means increasing the popularity of Linux distribution(s). The fact that there are so many distributions of gnu/linux is both its strength and its weakness as there is no single identifiable brand. The nearest commercial offering is Android, and that is targeting MID and tablet markets. As a group we should be trying to promote gnu/linux from the ground up. That means we all have to do are bit to sell and promote it to the wider public. Tom. |
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