Comment 706 for bug 1

I agree that Microsoft does have an unfair advantage in this sense,
but anyone who is at all tech-savvy can uninstall windows and replace
it with whatever they like.

You make the assumption that given the choice, people would choose
Linux and probably Ubuntu 9 times out of 10. I don't think this is at
all the case.

Everyone has a go at Microsoft for every little thing that's wrong
with their operating system (and there are a lot) but the fact remains
that many people genuinely *choose* to use it.

I consider myself to be an extremely tech-savvy user. I am a computer
science graduate and have been a developer for 3 years, I am very
comfortable with using Unix, but I uninstalled Hardy just a few months
after installing it because I found it had just too many bugs to cope
with. And I have ended up using Vista. I know, I know it has a worse
security model, it's stupidly resource heavy, and shamelessly
subscribes to DRM, and believe me I'm a principled guy, but at the end
of the day it's still so much nicer to use than Ubuntu!

Trust me, I really believe in open source. I hate what Microsoft has
made the software world into, and I feel that all software should be
community-based to help speed the development of all software. But
despite this I still don't feel there is actually an open-source
operating system good enough for me to use at the moment.

Sure, take away any unfair advantage of Microsoft's that you can, but
at the end of the day Ubuntu, above all, needs to be easy to use. That
is what will win the war.

Robin.

2008/7/8 »John« <email address hidden>:
> Greetings from .CZ
>
> I believe the ultimate solution for this bug is hidden in this article
> (http://limulus.wordpress.com/2007/08/13/2010-the-year-of-the-linux-
> desktop).
>
> The history teaches us that Windows didn't win "the desktop wars"
> because it was the best available choice at the time... on the contrary
> - it actually survived despite the fact it was at least one of the worst
> solutions just because Microsoft was "somehow" able to make hardware
> vendors bundle Windows instead of competing alternatives.
>
> According to this fact, all we need to do in order to get rid of Microsoft once and for all is cutting their connections with hardware vendors because as I have already mentioned, they could never make it to where they are today if it wasn't for their support - as Mark noted in the very beginning of this debate, 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.
> Once the users have absolute freedom to buy their desired hardware without being tied to any particular system, we're probably gonna walk all over Microsoft in no time, even though less technically skilled people (and those too lazy to learn anything new) who got used to work with computers in certain way (which is making them literally addicted to current state of things and afraid of any change) will still choose to pay for Windows.
>
> That's why i suggest we should do our best to make bundling illegal by
> some international treaty, so starting and/or supporting any ongoing
> effort to achieve this goal in your countries would perfectly serve this
> purpose (I got the idea because I heard something about European Union -
> which has recently been charging Microsoft pretty painful fines -
> discussing to ban selling new computers with pre-installed OS; it's
> actually funny how little effort was needed to Google the thread
> discussing this right on our own forums:
> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=558841).
>
> Hope this helps our cause and thank you for all the blood, sweat and
> tears you're pouring into liberating the ICT world from shitware (by the
> way, the "blood, sweat and tears" cliche reminds me of this article:
> http://www.bbspot.com/News/2001/06/gates.html; check it out, I believe
> it's gonna cheer you up big time).
>
> --
> Microsoft has a majority market share
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in Computer Science Ubuntu: Confirmed
> Status in Ichthux - Linux for Christians: Confirmed
> Status in JAK LINUX: Confirmed
> Status in The OpenOffice.org Suite: Confirmed
> Status in Launchpad Translations: Invalid
> Status in Tabuntu: Confirmed
> Status in Ubuntu: Confirmed
> Status in "bum" source package in Ubuntu: Invalid
> Status in "casper" source package in Ubuntu: Invalid
> Status in "djplay" source package in Ubuntu: Invalid
> Status in "firefox" source package in Ubuntu: Invalid
> Status in "ubuntu-express" source package in Ubuntu: Invalid
> Status in The Breezy Badger: Invalid
> Status in The Dapper Drake: Invalid
> Status in Baltix GNU/Linux: Confirmed
> Status in "linux" source package in Debian: Confirmed
> Status in Tilix Linux: New
>
> Bug description:
> Microsoft has a majority market share in the new desktop PC marketplace.
> This is a bug, which Ubuntu is designed to fix.
>
> Non-free software is holding back innovation in the IT industry, restricting access to IT to a small part of the world's population and limiting the ability of software developers to reach their full potential, globally. This bug is widely evident in the PC industry.
>
> Steps to repeat:
>
> 1. Visit a local PC store.
>
> What happens:
> 2. Observe that a majority of PCs for sale have non-free software pre-installed.
> 3. Observe very few PCs with Ubuntu and free software pre-installed.
>
> What should happen:
> 1. A majority of the PCs for sale should include only free software like Ubuntu.
> 2. Ubuntu should be marketed in a way such that its amazing features and benefits would be apparent and known by all.
> 3. The system shall become more and more user friendly as time passes.
>