Re: Loki...

[Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.net>]

Marcus Ilgner wrote:

> > but what's really needed is computer manufacturers to pre-install Linux.
> > There is some hope that this may start to happen if Microsoft are
> > prohibited from banning the manufacturers from doing that (as they
> > currently do).
> Yes, that would be a really cool. I'm not really sure but I think that,
> 1 or 2 years ago, Vobis used to offer Linux with new computers. (If you
> don't know Vobis: it's a rather large vendor here in Germany).
> If they would do that today with one of the popular distros (SuSE,
> Redhat) that could really be a success.

What I'd like to see happen (since Linux is free and doesn't take up
all that much disk space) is for computer vendors to simply install
BOTH Linux AND Windoze on each machine with a simple LILO-like bootstrap
that lets you pick which OS you would like to run.

It would be easy to provide a widget under Windoze to allow you to
delete the Linux partition and use it's disk allocation for Windoze - so
there is no real cost to the end user either.  It would also be nice if
there was a way to buy the computer *without* Windoze and avoid the
Microsoft Tax - but that is perhaps a harder sell.

I think that this would be a good selling point for the low end PC
manufacturers - another '+' on their list of features - and it doesn't
really cost them very much to do.  They could even bundle something
like Plex86 or VMware to allow the use of either OS without rebooting.

Once every computer has Linux pre-installed, it will be MUCH easier to
pursuade the big games companies to make games (and perhaps other
software) for Linux.  People will also be tempted to try out this strange
"Linux" thing they see on their machine.  Since it's already pre-installed
with everything that came in the PC properly configured, they can boot
straight into X and have immediate gratification and no setup hassles.

Then we'd have a level playing field.  If Linux is technically better
at running a particular game - then that game will be written to run under
Linux.   If most games end up running under Linux then we win - if Windoze
turns out to genuinely have some features (Direct-X perhaps) that make it
easier to write/run games then we lost fair-and-square...but we can (and
would) adapt.

But this can only happen if Microsoft are forced to remove that restriction
from their VAR sales agreement...they won't do it voluntarily.

----------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------------
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