Buy Linux PCs, then steal Windows

The article (I just looked at it just to confirm the source) is another regurgitation of the Gartner study. An interview with the author I read earlier gave a much more nuanced view where the statistics varied by locale and were predicted to change more to Linux favor in the future. If I could force myself to read another trite version, I probably, would vote negatively on this story. But I just cannot bother with it, when the summary gave no hint of any different perspective.

It happens a heck of a lot more often in Australia. So I wrote and said:

Quoting: Your article about people buying computers loaded with Linux and then installing illegally copied MS-Windows CDs on them is insulting for the many people who legitimately use Linux, and makes no economic sense.

It is just as easy to buy "naked" computers without any operating system, or (as Dell ships them) computers loaded with FreeDOS, then install MS-Windows on those, yet the story doesn't even hint that this might be happening. Here it happens at least ten times as often.

Computers preloaded with Linux act to cut back substantially on illegal copying, because many of them either stay loaded with Linux, or when purchased with overwriting in mind the new owner either sets the machine up to "dual-boot" or tries Linux out first and gets one step closer to using Linux full time.

Every person using Linux is a person not using illegally copied software, so it is more honest and accurate to characterise users of MS-Windows as "pirates" and Linux users as law-abiding.

Well met!

You should really be sending complaint to the publications that have distorted the story.

The author of the study supposedly has statistics to back up some of the figures cited, however, those numbers vary by country. Moreover, the author stated in an interview I read that she expects more of the machines will retain Linux in the future. I regret I cannot find the exact article, but this may help see the author does not sound like an idolog: http://business.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=04/10/12/121621...

Here to is an interesting bit from the above citation:

But things might change

Jump doesn't believe her numbers are cast in stone. She's extrapolating current trends based on a limited dataset. She knows that applications for Linux are rapidly increasng in both quality and quantity, and that there are still a lot of corporate Windows 98 and even 95 desktops in the world. And she told me that a migration from Windows 95 or 98 to Linux "is where you get a return on your investment quickly."

She also knows that once a company starts using Linux successfully on limited-purpose desktops, it might not be a big stretch for that company to move a majority or even all of its desktops to Linux, especially if and when it is faced with a choice between Linux and Microsoft's Longhorn Windows, which may hit the market in 2006. (Or maybe 2007.)

TxEdMacs, the quoted reply went to the Malaysian rag.

I am glad to hear it went to the distorting source. Had I read your letter a bit more carefully, perhaps I might not have jumped to the conclusion that it went to the author of the report.

This by the way was not my only error posting yesterday.