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Thoughts on why so few new PCs come with Linux
Fri, 11/10/2006 - 2:30pm
I recently read this article:
http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/01/magazines/business2/microsoft_vista.biz2/
It makes some very good points regarding why there have been so few desktop PCs being shipped with Linux pre-loaded, and why those we have seen have failed.
Personally, I think the release of Vista will change this dynamic completely, as Linux will be a much more viable solution to load on older PCs that will not support Vista. Once more consumers upgrade their old machines in this way, they will be much more likely to accept Linux on thier new machines as well.
The artical does make some very good points honestly I think the biggest problem is that until recently it was not ready for the typical user, A little over a year ago I was still running windows on all of my computers except 1 now all my computers have Linux on them. Linux has made some great advances in the past year or so, It is slowly moving away from needing to use the comandline. and several companys like HP already offer computers with Linux preinstalled on them. It won't be long before a movement starts. This biggest problem is convincing software companys to start making their software to work on a Linux platform, The available commercial software is just not readily available yet. Its almost a ketch 22 - You can't convince people to move to Linux due to lack of software title and can't get the software manufactures to make software for Linux with out more users using it.
Open Souce is for the good of everyone.
You don't Have to live with product activation, There is always another way if you look hard enough.