Rebuttal

Story: Why OEM's Should Avoid (possibly) Making It Harder To Install Linux.Total Replies: 9
Author Content
Jeff91

Jan 24, 2012
5:52 PM EDT
1.) Who is going to back this anti-trust law-suit? I think if there where enough people around to scare these OEMs with law-suits, we would have enough of a user base to get Linux pre-installed from these same vendors.

2.) As sad as it is to say most users simply don't care about software freedom (or even know it exists). The fact that closed source software is still so commonly used is a testament to this fact.

3.) Lies, damned lies and statistics. One person says we have 1% another person says we must have at least 10%. One person says we grew last year, one person says we shrank. Lets just keep doing what we do - producing great software. Who cares about percentages?

4.) Because we know those online petitions have done so much for so many things over the years. You know, like getting Blizzard to port their games to Linux (or any other of dozens of them that have piles of signatures).

5.) Your first sentence is very, very true. With regards to the second part though, I'm fairly certain these enterprise systems come with the correct enterprise operating system by default (or no OS).

Final Note:

Worst case scenario, should OEMs make it so you can't install Linux on Windows pre-installed systems, this simply means we will all be done paying the Windows tax. Everyone will have to instead purchase systems from vendors that actually support Linux.

~Jeff
tracyanne

Jan 24, 2012
7:05 PM EDT
I do already. The only computers I buy these days come from a vendor (a factory actually) that bulds computers you can install your choice of operating system. The License you pay for the OS depends on the OS you choose.
flufferbeer

Jan 24, 2012
9:48 PM EDT
The title of this got to me.

Isn't it not untrue that the title shouldn't not be Why non-OEM's Should Not Avoid Not (less possibly) Making It Less Harder To Not Install Linux

or

Is it not false that the title should be Why OEM's Should Encourage (possibly) Making It Less Harder To Not Install Linux

or

Is it true that the title should be Why OEM's Should Encourage (possibly) Making It Harder To Install Linux

or even by some far out chance

Why OEM's Should Encourage (possibly) Making It Easier To Install Linux???

2c
JaseP

Jan 24, 2012
10:56 PM EDT
Flufferbeer has us right it comes off like a triple negative, like watching Pinnochio in the last Shrek movie.
chalbersma

Jan 25, 2012
1:42 AM EDT
I think the biggest reason OEMs won't properly implement secure boot lies in the number of users who pirate windows.
JaseP

Jan 25, 2012
9:51 AM EDT
I think that the OEMs implementing secure boot comes from another boot,... The one owned by M$, that M$ is wearing,... and the sole of which is firmly planted on the OEMs necks,... If loopholes exist that will allow Linux or other OSes to be installed, it will come from the rogue factions in China,... Meaning, we, as Linux users will have the choice of; (a) those mainstream OEMs gracious enough to allow an open boot policy & (b) custom OEM builds from low quality Chinese manufacturers.



I predict that, of new systems designed with Win8 in mind, we will have, at most, 30% of those able to run Linux. I'm guessing the actual percentage to be closer to 20%.
Rpim

Jan 25, 2012
1:25 PM EDT
Sorry I got the title wrong it was supposed to be "Why OEM's Should Avoid (possibly) Making It Harder To Install Linux".
BernardSwiss

Jan 25, 2012
7:34 PM EDT
@chalbersma

But, all those computers come with Windows already.

...oh. I get it. You mean Microsoft's definition of "pirating Windows". That's the kind of nonsense that motivated me to learn Linux, in the first place.

Rpim

Jan 30, 2012
6:12 AM EDT
Hi, thanks for making these points.

Heres my second round of points:

1.In Australia I've heard that people have made complaints about windows 8 secure boot (I think this might lead to an antitrust lawsuit.)

2. Yes I know a lot of people and companies don't care about freedom issues, I were just trying to make people (and possibly OEMS) aware.

3. I know there are people claiming Linux has around 10% of the market share. But I believe 1.41% is fairly accurate.

4. Yes I know petitions aren't always effective but you could say that the petitions against PIPA and SOPA were effective. And for around 23,000 people to be against windows 8 secure boot is a fair number.

5. Yes but that probably means that OEMS who stop you disabling secure boot will loose out in money.
JaseP

Jan 30, 2012
11:14 AM EDT
@Rpim:

Your #3,... I disagree vehemently. MS's own figures from the Halloween Documents put Linux adoption at somewhere around 5 to 7%. And I don't believe Linux has LOST market share. I can believe it's a static rate (increases in numbers but not percentage). But it's too easy to find support for obscure things in Linux. And it's not the same people helping all the time.

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