Comment 715 for bug 1

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 :)