News Comment All comments on news story: Inexpensive computers may give Linux operating system a big lift It's a reply to comment: yes and... by: CMonster3  And expensive high end machines give Linux a big lift too -- SuSE 10.3 is rockin my boxen! already been tried by: sakuramboo  Wal-mart sold cheap Linux based desktops and now arent selling them in stores any more. Fry's Electronics still has at least one Linux based desktop for sale just because. Dell is now selling laptops with Linux installed. the OLPC laptop has Linux installed. so, the Asus EEEPC is supposed to be big news? the truth is, the only way Linux can gain ground in the desktop market is to do the same thing that microsoft did when they were starting out. start cutting deals with the computer manufacturers and education institutions (start with pre-school and work their way up) and to start shipping computers with linux pre-installed. Dell is the only company right now that might make that happen if only they stopped sucking on the microsoft teet and start thinking for them self. but, then again, 10,000 Vista licenses at 3 bucks a piece is a damn good deal and Dell would never want to let that go. so, Linux will continue to be pushed to the back burner. unless Red Hat ever comes out with their Desktop version of RHEL AND offer systems with it pre-installed (ala Apple), linux isnt gonna gain grounds in the desktop market. but, everyone always says that linux has 2 percent of the desktop market, thats false. there are hundreds, if not thousands of computers unaccounted for, only because there really is no sure fire way to count off every single distribution on every single computer. Re: already been tried by: CMonster3  agreed Though it is a difficult strategy to carry out since there is no central or unified Linux company to back such a push. I'm also unclear as to just what "deals" may be made since the schools and other companies can already use Linux for free. You would think a school would jump at the chance of free software that can run all their computing needs -- especially since here in the US they are always crying about budget. Such is the brainwashing their apathy shows. As for pre-installed Linux, I would say that these installations should also be pre-configured with video drivers that support opengl, DVD playback, mp3 codecs, and all web plugins. Face it, we have a culture of dumb end users that think they are smart because they can click a mouse. If they cannot readily and easily install a plugin to titillate themselves with all forms of web content they will balk at the platform. Re: already been tried by: sakuramboo  the deals would be for hardware and support. a grass-roots kind of approach to OS adoption just wont work, especially at the rate that its going right now. companies are not designing software for linux because the only information that anyone has is that linux desktop makes up 2 percent (which is actually closer to 10 percent if you count all the installs that cant be counted for lack of internet).
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