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Well, it was a relatively quiet week on the Linux blogs last week, as schools around the country wrapped up another year and everyone began the transition -- even if just unofficially -- into summer. Perhaps it was those stimulus checks burning holes in their pockets, but the most lively discussion on Slashdot last week focused on the critical decision that any Linux geek contemplating the purchase of a new PC must face: Whether to buy it preloaded with Linux, or whether to get a Windows machine and reformat it with Linux themselves.
is what it costs to get the greatest functionality. For example, if a future valedictorian from a local high school offers to work for me for minimum wage, I would remind the student that he/she is better than the average at whatever he/she does so the price should be higher (thank Goodness I am not in business!). XP/Vista do no more than GNU/Linux or MacOS, so the value should be comparable. The cost of production of XP/Vista is actually quite small per copy. Take a few billion dollars and divide by a few hundred million copies and see what I mean. The replacement cost of XP/Vista is tiny in comparison to what M$ charges retail or to OEMs. That is why M$ is so profitable. They are over-charging by any measure.
To accept a PC with GNU/Linux when XP/Vista installed sells at a lower price on identical hardware with GNU/Linux installed is very poor purchasing. Tell Dell that. I notice that no OEM sells exactly the same hardware with XP as they do GNU/Linux. Where I come from that is an anti-competitive act, preventing competition on price. Fortunately the tiny machines work better with GNU/Linux so that may not work to maintain the monopoly much longer.
To accept a PC with GNU/Linux when XP/Vista installed sells at a lower price on identical hardware with GNU/Linux installed is very poor purchasing. Tell Dell that. I notice that no OEM sells exactly the same hardware with XP as they do GNU/Linux. Where I come from that is an anti-competitive act, preventing competition on price. Fortunately the tiny machines work better with GNU/Linux so that may not work to maintain the monopoly much longer.
PS wanted to mention I did buy a preloaded Dell with Ubuntu. http://fredblotnic.blogspot.com/2008/05/dell-preinstalled-ubuntu-system.html
One thing I disagree with is on the labor you are NOT being charged for labor over installing linux over windows. Also you might mention that Windows gets subsidies by being preloaded ie all the crap trial software like aol msn etc that get installed they pay a fee to dell to do so to relieve the price a bit.
