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Shuttleworth Tells Linux Users to Stop Being So Fussy For OEMs

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the probably-good-advice-in-general dept.

Anonymous writes "Mark Shuttleworth says Linux users may need to stop being so fussy when putting demands on OEMs for pre-installed Linux PCs. CRN finds a response to Shuttleworth that seems to be both amusing and telling at the same time."

2 of 386 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I agree by asphaltjesus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    1. Business guys like Shuttleworth view success in terms of volume adoption and profitability.

    2. The vast majority of users don't understand that the hardware is separate from the OS. They can't comprehend that another OS will actually run on their hardware. PHB's included.

    Which leads us to the conclusion that resellers like Dell are a gateway to _very_ many end users.

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  2. Re:Hardware support by MikeZ52 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    One point........Dell, HP, etc. use pretty standard hardware across much of their platform line. They are huge customers of the component manufacturers, many of whom will not open their code to allow developers to write open source drivers. If the PC makers want to sell new machines to me, they should either:
    1.) Only purchase components for which open source drivers are available, or
    2.) Use their purchasing clout to persuade manufacturers to allow developers to write OSS drivers.

    In this scenario, I could purchase a machine either with or without the chosen distro and have some certainty that everything can be made to work when I decide to switch to my favorite flavor of the month.