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Is There An OS On My Hard Drive?
stm2 writes "Thanks to an agreement between Lindows and Seagate, from October you will be able to choose a hard drive with or without Lindows. Michael Robertson, in his usual marketing speak, compares this to adding "Fluoride in the water", because now you get for free something you used to need to go after (people used to go to dentist to get their Fluoride). According to the PR, the OS can autodetect and configure itself on the host machine."
There is a big chunk of people out there who aren't afraid to open up their own machines, but use Windows because they don't have enough Round Tuits to try Linux.
If Lindows is easy enough to give a go it might last for a few days before being scrubbed (doesn't play game X)... but then the idea that Linux systems can do things pretty well will stick in the back of the mind for the next time they have to assemble a 'second machine' for general use in the house.
Beep beep.
I can't think of a good reason that any of these situations would merit booting a default OS from a hard disk, rather than formatting it, and installing what you want.
The only people who might leave the Lindows OS on the hard disk are shops that build beige boxes, and don't want to burn a windows license to deliver a working computer. Maybe the mom and pop PC market is what they're after.
-- lk t lv ll th vwls t f wrds. T svs lts f tm t wrt bt ts pn n th ss t rd nd mks m lk lk cmplt dpsht.
Why should it cost more? You don't think Seagate writes a crapload of bits to the drive during testing? You don't think they could see to it that the last pass leaves a certain combination of bits (Lindows) instead of some other combination of bits (1010101010.. or SEAGATE OWNERZ YOU!!!)
Anyway, even if there is a cost, it seems clear that Lindows is paying it. Lindows isn't going to sell more hard drives, if anything it will sell less since people don't need the uber-GB that an XP install requires. So if Seagate isn't getting anything out of it, there's no reason for them to increase the cost to customers and hurt themselves in the market.
Rather, it makes sense they are selling this otherwise empty space to whoever wants to use it. Lindows gets a change to make a convert. If nothing else, its free advertising. Hell, if I buy a drive that comes pre-loaded I'd probably check it out for curiousity sake.
It's a smart idea. I predict that other hard drive makes make similar deals. What if someone decided to load the drive full of DRM music that people could just click-n-buy? Think about it...
- JoeShmoe
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-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
OK.
So the biggest problem Linux faces on the Desktop is the Microsoft-sponsored stranglehold on the industry.
Not only are OEMs strongly discouraged from installing Linux, they are usually contractually obligated not to install anything else!
So, Mr. Cowpland, making the best of a *bad* situation, goes one back in the supply chain - to the hard disk manufacturers!
Wow. Good thinking! No OEM contracts! Product delivered, ready for use!
I know, 90% of these preinstalls are going to be nuked. So what. If Lindows gets 1%, given the cost of duplication on the drives, this is a smashing success.
And, what else is he going to do? Knock Lindows as the orphan child of Linux, but, like Red Hat, this is clearly a positive commercial influence.
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
This is somewhat nonsensical.
:) I wonder if Mandrake or Red Hat will cut a similar deal with Quantum or whoever?
Flouride as a preventative measure against cavities was first discovered by the dentists. Of course, the industry/government might be exploiting the situation, but I think the author of the linked article perhaps is paranoid to the irrational.
But pre-installed Lindows on hard drives sold seperately is an excellent idea
Stop the brainwash
After reading (and agreeing to) all the comments pointing out that this pre-installation totally misses any targeted audience, I think at the end of the day this might be just a strategy to inflate the number of "sold units" of lindows.
You know, much in the same way as it is argued that the real installed user base for Windows machines is actually lower, since OEM sales of boxen that are later re-formatted and Redhatized are also counted as Windows installations in industry statistics. So, every drive sold marks one unit of Lindows out there, whether it's DOA or not.
These are the tactics that we accused Microsoft of when they were trying to push other browsers like Netscape and other OSes like Linux out of the market. I'm pretty convinced they work.
:-) I'm a lazy guy!
Give people for free the stuff that you want them to at least try once. They they have to DO THINGS to get rid of it or change it. People are lazy, so at least some won't.
As to where will this end up? Well the small white-box assembly shops might be tempted to use the Lindows install on the drive to burn-in the computer. And leave it on if the customer didn't order a MicroSoft install. So the end users might end up seeing it. Great.
Some people buy a new HD, and will install it as the first drive, move the old one over. Bingo!
I installed two machines last week. They came with Seagate drives. Had a Debian based installation already been present, I'd just have upgraded that.