Falling Hardware Prices Favor Linux 459
An anonymous reader sends us to a blog posting arguing that, as hardware prices fall below $250 for laptops and desktops, Linux should gain as the Microsoft tax stands out in sharper relief. "In previous years, if you were spending US$1500 and up on a laptop, the Microsoft tax you were paying didn't seem like such a big deal. XP or Vista was pre-installed, fairly convenient... But as the price of hardware for small basic machines comes down, (think under US$250 by the end of next year), then software price starts to become a big issue. Why would you pay the price of your new laptop again just for the software, when all you want to do is really basic things?"
Perspective flip (Score:5, Interesting)
hardware price decrases, system specs increase (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Serving the diners or the cooks? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd say the biggest difference is that with Windows, the cost of support is somewhat built into the price of the system, whereas with Linux, it's frequently (though not always) packaged separately. This means that support for MS systems can be a great deal if you just have one system, but not such a good deal if you have hundreds. With Linux, it's frequently the reverse.
Of course, unpaid support for both systems is pretty problematic. But that's a separate matter. However, even there, Linux leads by having Ubuntu. MS has no equivalent of a free system with free support.
Falling HW Prices Benefit...MS (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:MS Tax? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm a SuSE Desktop 10.1 user so it doesn't really matter - but it's a good exercise for the course, worth considering.
Advertised? (Score:4, Interesting)
Pay for the codecs. (Score:4, Interesting)
Basically, the solution is to build in an (optional) method to the mainstream Linux distributions so that users can purchase and install legitimate codecs, or get them with the distribution pre-installed. The parent company of Lindows purchased the rights to the codecs' IP already, so it's really a matter of taking them and working the licenses into Ubuntu or a similar, more popular distro.
Yes, this would make the resulting distro non-free, in the same way that pre-installing a proprietary video driver would, and it would mean that there would be a charge to the user for each machine that they got with Linux on it. However, it would still be far cheaper than Windows (remember: Windows has to pay for the same IP licenses, it's just built into the cost of the entire OS; with Linux, that would be your only cost), and as a result you'd get a machine that could deal with modern multimedia and video out of the box, or with at most a one-click install. None of the current hunting around on forums for instructions that come with a lot of "wink, wink, nudge, nudge, informational-purposes-only" disclaimers.
Re:Serving the diners or the cooks? (Score:2, Interesting)
Just for time comparisons, I'll let you take a brand new HP Vista laptop, Power it up, make a set of recovery disks, connect wireless, and create a couple user accounts.
I'm still recovering from doing that yesterday. The time from powering it on till I could get a start button.. 40 minutes. Burn recovery CD's.. It took a long time to create the files before it asked for media, either 2 DVD's or 11 CD's I don't know how long it took, I took a break to run my kid to a friends house after school while I was waiting. I went with the fast option and picked DVD's. I don't know how long it took to actualy burn the DVD's I had to break for dinner. Burning the DVD's is a 3 step process, create an image (thought that was already done but I guess not) Burn the DVD, and then verify the DVD. You get only one shot to do this. The instructions clearly state only one recovered disk set can be made.
Installing Ubuntu on my other machine, getting online, getting updates and setting up user accounts took far less time. It wasn't an all day project that ran over to another day.
I gotta go, I need to deal with setting up a subscription to the AV software and complete the product activation.
Re:Perspective flip (Score:5, Interesting)
People pay for Windows? (Score:3, Interesting)
"Man, I'm bummed. I got this pretty hot new laptop for three hundred bucks but it didn't come with Windows, and I don't have a copy of it anywhere."
"Oh? Hmm, I've got the disc right here in my drawer. Hold on, I'll burn you a copy." *takes out a CD with 'Windows XP' and a serial number scribbled on it in marker*
Predictable, but ... (Score:2, Interesting)
A couple of years ago when I saw him at a conference I asked him if that was still his prediction and he replied that he was no longer so sure, because he thought that it was possible that Microsoft would simply cut the price of the Windows OS (to close to zero) to cancel out this effect.
That hasn't happened, but I think it's more than possible that it might.
Re:Serving the diners or the cooks? (Score:3, Interesting)
Er, not quite.
What drove me away was the fact that:
-Despite following the install instruction to the letter
-Despite reserving the Linux install to a separate hard drive
-Despite following the HIGHLY RECOMMENDED advice to install Grub on the MBR
the install didn't work AND
-kept me from doing anything on the command line when it got the error
-locked me out of Windows, and therefore any use of my computer, and therefore near-bricking it
-the only way to recover it would be use things I can't access UNTIL I RECOVER IT or go miles out of my way
-"knowledgeable" Ubuntu forum members gave completely clueless suggestions that ignored what I posted and didn't follow up when I was able to try their advice.
As you can see, the "random people on some forum" were a teeny tiny part of the massive fuckup that was my attempt to "join the Linux community". And I'm a reasonably intelligent computer user!
Whenever I recommend something to someone that I think will benefit them, but that is unfamiliar to them, I would make damn sure that the usage instructions would be complete (which they weren't) and that they'd have the appropriate tools if something went wrong (which Ubuntu didn't do).
So no, it was a muck bigger failure on Ubuntu's part than you imply.
Re:Serving the diners or the cooks? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Yes, and I know why it didn't work out that way (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Yes, and I know why it didn't work out that way (Score:1, Interesting)
Well, the company is still here, and the monopoly is still mostly here, but they're certainly on their way out [paulgraham.com].
I'd be curious to see you make up a scorecard of your original reasons, and how Microsoft did at each one, and how correct you turned out to be.
Re:Serving the diners or the cooks? (Score:3, Interesting)
Fuck glitzy graphics, my computer is for getting work done (except when I'm writing sim visualizations, then I'm writing the graphics