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

[SneakyWho_am_i]

Various thoughts after reading the first 120 comments on this bug...
Yes, games are a big, big issue. To really convert to Ubuntu, you need to forget how to use Windows (well, ok, not forget, but when you look at "C:\>" it should be disorienting and confusing)....
Many Ubuntu converts still have Windows for games. Sad but true, I can only give anecdotal evidence, but it's a popular reason for dual booting. Believe it or not, Dual booting may be part of the problem ;p ... I used to be a gamer and this was me. I haven't used Windows in at least six months, except occasionally at work. My life is better for it.

So, games.... There are great games available for Linux, largely from ID
Software and the likes..... They don't do the whole "autorun" thing
though (as far as I can recall) and that's a big handicap.

I used illegal copies of Windows for many years, often dual booting. I
tried many times to switch to Xandros, Red Hat (3 . 1), Mandrake 8
(which I paid eighty bucks for, complete with a pretty box, a user guide
and a refernce handbook) and other distributions. I tried Dragonlinux
when it first came out, which installs on a virtual filesystem up to two
gigabytes in size on your Dos/Win98 disk, has KDE2 or something and no
sound, and runs slower than..... a slow thing.

The above of course in no particular order.

None of those satisfied. Windows never satisfied me either, and I moved
from Windows 95 to 98 to 2000 to ME (then back to 2000 cause ME was
RUBBISH), and then finally (reluctantly) to (illegal like everything
before it) XP. And yes, I filled out surveys from time to time - what
Operating System do you have at your place? Windows. It's the only thing
I don't screw up after a week.

Now, though? Yeah I'm using Ubuntu full on. No longer Ultraedit and Winamp, now Kate and Amarok.
===================================
========KRegExpEditor has saved my life.========
=================================== .... - I use it daily.

Here's my suggestion for a fix. Installing Ubuntu on old computers seems like a logical step because it creates a support crew for new users.
It's great, but it's not the answer.

First up, the fight isn't really for Ubuntu proper to come out on top. No. It's free software. Forcing everyone to use one distribution would be just as bad as forcing everyone to use Windows (OK OK it so wouldn't but run with me for a sec)
The end doesn't justify the means. A level playing field in the OS market is not going to be brought about by putting all your eggs in the Ubuntu basket.

Debian, Suse, Mandrake, Red Hat... To varying extents, they are all also
free software. They are not your enemies. They have a common enemy (or
two) and when you tell people that Suse is shitty, you're doing nothing
to help the open source cause. Suse is excellent. I don't use it, but
that's my personal preference.

Linux is just best for everyone. Linux is best for _me_. I need a variety of tools to perform serious development and documentation work. I can get those tools on Linux for nothing, halving the Total Cost of Technology ownership.
I still don't really wholly understand what's going on on my own machines, but I can't afford to buy the things I need on Windows, and I don't think that I should be allowed to use them without paying.

People should be able to reap the benefits of their work. Windows is
worth every cent, it's just a shame that using it doubles the price of a
computer and I can't afford that.

Yes, Windows is entrenched and locked in. What is needed to move it? User conversion? Well... Yes.
But Windows can do things that Linux can't. And vice versa. Even if that were not true, that's how it looks when you try to convert. Perhaps if all I'd ever used was Linux, it wouldn't look that way to me.

Therefore Windows users will never really be satisfied, and Linux will never perform for them, unless they have someone more skilled with it (read: raised-on-Linux) to show them the ropes.
Use in schools is not going to convert the kids themselves. Kids don't care (mostly) and won't remember. I was quite bright at school but in my classroom we had a computer with a monochrome screen and no mouse..... Hey, I still don't have a clue what was installed, could have been a Commodore or Amiga or........ Man it could have been sent by space aliens for all I knew. It's not like Primary school kids get superuser accounts on the classroom computers anyway, now, is it?

If open source operating systems wish to follow in proprietary footsteps
and take a proportional and suitable market share, then they're going to
have to follow in proprietary footsteps. Windows's success appears to be
partially that it came preinstalled on new 386 and 486 boxes. A whole
generation converted in one hit.

The proper approach to resolving this bug is to use the same strategy. No guerilla warfare; if you want to make an omelette, you're going to have to break some eggs.
Converting computer salesmen is the right way to go about it. Abusing them for refusing to install it is great fun, but it probably just makes us look crazy.

WHY can't they sell Windows-less boxes??

Probably in part it's because of Dell-like sales strategies. These computer places are really just buying their hardware from other computer places (upstream) and therefore are fakes and shouldn't be expected to have the expertise to configure operating systems anyway. No, they were just nerds at school and think they know everything ;)
As an entrepreneuer you need to find a way to cut the cost of your stock and your consumables. A good way, if you're retailing, is simply to find a cheap supplier.

A good example of a cheap supplier with quality components is Dell. Why are Dells so cheap? How come they have so much bundled software at such a low price?? Dell's marketing strategy hijacks the lock-in strategy.
Windows is preinstalled. And other commercial products are installed to innoculate the user base and increase exposure.
You have my permission at this point to jump up off your chair and shout "Advertising!!"
Yes, it is advertising. That's why it's so cheap. Dell, in installing all this proprietary software, is being paid for it as a kind of advertisement-publishing system.

This also explains why some computers come preinstalled with a lot of
useless CRAP.

So your local computer store, depending on where they get their computers, is not actually capable of uninstalling Windows - at all. It probably comes preinstalled on the machine before they buy it as a kind of cost cutting mechanism. The salesman cant' tell you that because he:
- doesn't know
or
- is stupid
or
- is paid to just sell Windows
or
- would be giving away some kind of inside information

If the computer has "made for Windows Virus" written on its badges, it
was probably assembled by the computer shop's manufacturer, in my
opinion. Probably a Microsoft Certified Distributor, or something.


You have to go up the chain.
Who is supplying the computer shop? Can you convince them to create and actively market a computer with free software on it? Can they make money off of that? How?


Once computers can be in computer stores with Linux installed, if Linux is really all that we believe it to be, then people will see them side by side and pick the superior system (at THIS point we need to kick computer salesmen in the pants)

if a manufacturer were to move enough boxes with Ubuntu preinstalled INTO retail stores, it would be a breakthrough and probably correct about 7000 lines for this bug. They need motivation to do this. Where is it going to come from?
Canonical?
Does Canonical push manufacturers to release Ubuntu preinstalled on their hardware? Is this cheaper than WIndows in the long run for a manufacturer??



Ubuntu in the long run will be suitable for everyone, and not just Microsoft employees. Why? Because it was created by everyone, and not just Microsoft employees. Marketing and interface won't do it though unless it is right there in people's faces. Joe Bloggs is not going to go to all the effort of ditching Windows to try out some unpopular and experimental Operating system, but to be in the cool crowd he might buy it if it's preinstalled on his first computer and $400 cheaper.
The computer manufacturer normally installs the OS, in my mind. Remember that.

-- 
Microsoft has a majority market share
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