Wrong!!! Its simple - Dells contract with Mircosoft is set so that Dell pays by the number machines made not the number of copies of WinXP installed. So when you get the Machine that comes with FreeDOS you still get the privlidge of paying for XP - so to keep profits up Dell must charge extra for the computer that comes with FreeDOS. This is a sweet deal for both Microsoft and Dell - Dell gets to cut the price of XP machines and Microsoft gets to lock in lots and lots of computers to XP at shipment. The only person taking it in the pants is some end users and nobody is talking to them.
I do this all the time - I get old computers from companies & the Muni - and load SuSE 9.3 on them and give them to families that can not afford a computer of their own. Looked into trying this with Windows - But the only way it works on a large scale - is with Linux. (by large scale - I mean that I have given out 14 computers in one day and have done 3 or 4 a day very often and I am gearing up to give away 250 to 300 machines this coming school year).
Advantages of using Linux over Windows in this project.
1. Quick install - Install and update everything in 30 minutes of my time - no mater how varied the hardware is.
2. Complete software pack - every thing needed to make a computer useful is included. (put Windows on a computer - and what have you have?)
3. No license problems - SuSE comes right out and says in their license that I can give away as many copies as I wish! (I cannot be certain that any install of Windows is ligit even if it came with the machine).
4. No virus/trojan/malware problems even though I am giving them a very modern computer environment. (True Win95 and to a lessor extent Win98 is less attacked - However, for this you pay by having a old unsupported OS that cannot be used with a fair amount of modern hardware like USB printers).
5. With the exception of software modems I have yet to have a single piece of hardware fail to install the drivers to make it work.
6.Lots of helpers - that have given free assistance.
So if you wish to give out large numbers of computers to those that need them - your only choice is some distro of Linux.
My son attends a private school - It costs $13,000 a year per child (I pay half) local public schools spend $11,000 per student. My sons class room (first grade) has 12 students. Public is about 30, My son also has an art teacher, a gym teacher, a music teacher, Spanish teacher, and his regular teacher has a part time aid. My son left kindergarten reading, writing, doing addition, subtraction, and some multiplication at levels that are beyond beginning second graders in public schools. When he sings he can carry a tune, he has thrown pots and has the beginnings of a second language. What is more, he loves school, he can't get there fast enough in the mornings.
I was exceedingly unhappy with Bush when he caved into the Democrats on vouchers. (note: my son would not have benefitted from Bush's Voucher system.) Democrats I expect to oppose any measure to get a real education to children - its in the demographics - the less educated a person and lower they are paid the more likely they are to vote Democrat. Next time you hear a Democrat espousing high sounding platitudes about why we must keep the present public school system remember the demographics.
Fact is we know better than let the government run our food production or distribution system - we do not want to starve - food is just too important to allow the government to do it. Yes, let it regulate safety and cleanliness - but not do the production. Maybe it is time to do the same with education - have government set minimum standards, and requirements and and maybe set up a funding system to insure that all children have the ability to go to school and yes require it - but leave the doing of it to others. This would not be a totally new concept - Head Start in most locations in the US is not government operated. In Anchorage where I live there are two private nonprofit organizations supplying Head Start services. Yes, they are partly funded by the federal and state governments (also United way, and Native Corps, and many other funders). They must function up to a minimum set of standards to get these funds. And yes, the government checks up regularly.
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Wrong!!! Its simple - Dells contract with Mircosoft is set so that Dell pays by the number machines made not the number of copies of WinXP installed. So when you get the Machine that comes with FreeDOS you still get the privlidge of paying for XP - so to keep profits up Dell must charge extra for the computer that comes with FreeDOS. This is a sweet deal for both Microsoft and Dell - Dell gets to cut the price of XP machines and Microsoft gets to lock in lots and lots of computers to XP at shipment. The only person taking it in the pants is some end users and nobody is talking to them.
I do this all the time - I get old computers from companies & the Muni - and load SuSE 9.3 on them and give them to families that can not afford a computer of their own. Looked into trying this with Windows - But the only way it works on a large scale - is with Linux. (by large scale - I mean that I have given out 14 computers in one day and have done 3 or 4 a day very often and I am gearing up to give away 250 to 300 machines this coming school year).
Advantages of using Linux over Windows in this project.
1. Quick install - Install and update everything in 30 minutes of my time - no mater how varied the hardware is.
2. Complete software pack - every thing needed to make a computer useful is included. (put Windows on a computer - and what have you have?)
3. No license problems - SuSE comes right out and says in their license that I can give away as many copies as I wish! (I cannot be certain that any install of Windows is ligit even if it came with the machine).
4. No virus/trojan/malware problems even though I am giving them a very modern computer environment. (True Win95 and to a lessor extent Win98 is less attacked - However, for this you pay by having a old unsupported OS that cannot be used with a fair amount of modern hardware like USB printers).
5. With the exception of software modems I have yet to have a single piece of hardware fail to install the drivers to make it work.
6.Lots of helpers - that have given free assistance.
So if you wish to give out large numbers of computers to those that need them - your only choice is some distro of Linux.
My son attends a private school - It costs $13,000 a year per child (I pay half) local public schools spend $11,000 per student. My sons class room (first grade) has 12 students. Public is about 30, My son also has an art teacher, a gym teacher, a music teacher, Spanish teacher, and his regular teacher has a part time aid. My son left kindergarten reading, writing, doing addition, subtraction, and some multiplication at levels that are beyond beginning second graders in public schools. When he sings he can carry a tune, he has thrown pots and has the beginnings of a second language. What is more, he loves school, he can't get there fast enough in the mornings. I was exceedingly unhappy with Bush when he caved into the Democrats on vouchers. (note: my son would not have benefitted from Bush's Voucher system.) Democrats I expect to oppose any measure to get a real education to children - its in the demographics - the less educated a person and lower they are paid the more likely they are to vote Democrat. Next time you hear a Democrat espousing high sounding platitudes about why we must keep the present public school system remember the demographics. Fact is we know better than let the government run our food production or distribution system - we do not want to starve - food is just too important to allow the government to do it. Yes, let it regulate safety and cleanliness - but not do the production. Maybe it is time to do the same with education - have government set minimum standards, and requirements and and maybe set up a funding system to insure that all children have the ability to go to school and yes require it - but leave the doing of it to others. This would not be a totally new concept - Head Start in most locations in the US is not government operated. In Anchorage where I live there are two private nonprofit organizations supplying Head Start services. Yes, they are partly funded by the federal and state governments (also United way, and Native Corps, and many other funders). They must function up to a minimum set of standards to get these funds. And yes, the government checks up regularly.