A few years ago, Dell announced they were selling PCs with Linux (Ubuntu) preinstalled or with no OS installed. It was about time! So a couple years ago I bought the Inspiron 1525n laptop that I'm typing this on with Ubuntu preinstalled. Yea! (Though I immediately wiped Ubuntu and installed Fedora--sorry.)
So where do we stand today? Is the market free? Do we have a selection of OSes to choose from just as we do for cars, furniture, books, banks, and grocery stores?
No.
The Dell website offers
only Windows under
Home and Home Office. On the
Enterprise pages they offer--count 'em--
fourteen varieties of Windows! Oh, yeah, they do also list these:
Quote:
Ubuntu® Linux® (select countries)
nSeries FreeDOSTM
What's a
select country? Is my country (USA) among the lucky select countries? Apparently not. I tried to customize a PC but only Windows choices were in the OS selection category, not Linux or FreeDOS either for that matter.
So why do I
still not have the freedom to buy a Linux PC readily off the shelf?
The last 5 or so new PCs I've bought were pieces that I put together (except for this laptop). I sort prefer that, but I would like the option to just buy something ready-to-go. And I certainly would like to be able to tell friends how they can experience Linux without installing it. (Yeah, a couple have booted live CDs--that's at least something.)
How would you like it if GM was the
only car company you could buy a car from? Fourteen GM cars to choose from should cover the market. You don't need any more choices.
Does anyone else want a free OS market?