[Leaplist] A letter to my Windows friends...

[ray]

Ray Brunkow wrote:
> Sadly for the average user, this is not an option.  WHOAAAA!!!!!! hold 
> on, i am not saying that Linux is not something the average EU can not 
> use.  What I am saying is that the average Linux distro IS NOT READY 
> for the average user when it comes to installing, configuring, etc...  
> I am no linux guru, but I do know my way around a windows computer 
> VERY VERY VERY well and can install and configure both Linux and 
> Windows and set up dual boots when i need to.  I AM NOT the average 
> EU.  I promise you my wife, who is very much so in the average group 
> of users, could not install XP, or Linux for that matter.  It would be 
> even worse if my wife were to try to install Debian for example.  she 
> would have NO CLUE what 90% of the directions were telling her.  Same 
> would go with XP, but at least that is a bit more GUIish.  Yes there 
> are some GUI based distro installers like the FC line and others like 
> that, but again when it comes to picking the right options she would 
> be lost.
>
> Here is a big problem.  most mass producers of computers are so deep 
> in bed with MS that they CAN NOT SELL alternative OSs on their 
> hardware or MS will jack up the price of Office and OS on them to the 
> point they can no longer be competitive in price for their computers.  
> With the price of hardware being so small of a margin for markup for 
> profit the ONLY real profit mass makers of computers have a chance of 
> getting is on the software side.
>
> Example:
>
> winXP Pro OEM = $149
> Dell price could be as low as $35 for XP Pro, but as soon as Dell were 
> to start offering Linux or BSD on their hardware, their price for XP 
> could jump up to $75 or to $100, or even higher, thus cutting deeply 
> into their profit margin.  This is NOT good business for anyone and MS 
> is squarely to blame for this.  granted those are not 100% accurate 
> numbers as i have no clue what Dell is paying, but i do know a local 
> company that deals with millions of licenses for XP and they pay  $50 
> for XP Pro and $35 for XP Home.  So I can only guess that Dell is in 
> that range too.
http://linux.slashdot.org/linux/06/11/30/1554248.shtml

/"Last week, the press (and Slashdot 
<http://linux.slashdot.org/linux/06/11/20/1425254.shtml?tid=185>) 
reported that Birmingham City Council had decided to ditch its open 
source project because a report said its trial had cost £100,000 more 
than it would have cost to buy Windows. However, Techworld has 
discovered that the opposite is true 
<http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?newsid=7459>, and the 
Council is actually planning to use more open source software as well as 
to roll out Linux in the next few years. The head of IT was interviewed 
and he gives a fascinating rundown of the problems he had getting open 
source working with his systems. More interestingly, he points out that 
now the trial is over and he and his staff have the technical skills, 
they expect to save lots of money in future by going open source. *Oh, 
and the report's figures were based on the special rates that Microsoft 
gives Councils just to make sure the short-term budget look worse --- 
£58 for a Windows license as opposed to the normal £100."

*/NOTE** this is NOT to a corp like Dell that is selling new computers 
and they are still getting XP at a very large discount to prove my point 
above.
/**

/
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