[Bug 1] Re: Microsoft has a majority market share

[Conrad Knauer]

John wrote:

"all we need to do in order to get rid of Microsoft once and for all is
cutting their connections with hardware vendors [...] bundling Windows
with the majority of new computers (most notably laptops) and therefore
denying ICT users' the right to freely choose their OS is probably the
the fundamental cause of all this mess. [...] i suggest we should do our
best to make bundling illegal"

I've been thinking about this thread on-and-off all day and just a few
minutes ago a possible solution struck me:

What if OEMs were required to sell the software separately from the
hardware, BUT still be allowed to preinstall?  Specifically, think of
this scenario:

Major OEM makes notebooks and preloads them with Windows, but does NOT
activate them.  The notebook has one price and a sealed envelope with
the OEM Windows Key Sticker, backup CDs, etc. has a different price.

If the user wants to buy Windows for the notebook, they just pay the
extra $ for the envelope too and when they first bootup the machine they
enter the code and affix the sticker as per the EULA.

Oh wait, what's that other stack of disks next to the Windows envelopes?
Ubuntu Linux disks?  What's that you say; they're FREE?   And Ubuntu can
do pretty much everything Windows can and a few things it can't?  And if
I don't like it I can come back next week and still buy the OEM Windows
disks?  Hmm...

P.S. Glad you liked my article BTW John :)

-- 
Microsoft has a majority market share
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Mozilla
Bugs, which is subscribed to firefox in ubuntu.