"George Graves" <gmgraves2@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:0001HW.C4536012001713BCF01846D8@news.comcast. net...

> I believe that Linux would have a larger "market share" IF computer
> manufacturers stopped pre-installing Windows on their machines. If faced
> with
> a choice of buying Windows retail, and getting Linux for free (or
> practically
> free - that $10 CD price, you know) a lot more people would go for it. If
> that occurred, Linux user-ship would soon reach the critical mass to
> interest
> major developers in porting their apps to the platform. That's not going
> to
> happen, however and I think that Linux will always remain regulated to the
> "enthusiast" segment.

Not likely. Microsoft knows it's market penetration and market share
depends on bundling. As long as your commodity home PC is strapped with a
Vista product, the numbers rise. The whole idea is to not give the
commodity home PC buyer a choice. A PC from Dell, HP, Lenovo, Aspire with
bundled Vista or an Apple. It is about numbers and perception.

I do agree on one point though. Linux vendors like RedHat and Novell have
their heads up their butts right now. They could flog their Linux desktops
to Compaq/HP, Dell and others and make a real dent into the monopolistic
hold that MS has. In fact, as more people learn Linux isn't so scary and
can do the tasks, the more that will flock to it. It would help their
server sales to get more people into Linux. If I was RetHat or Novell, I
would be selling it for $35 or less with Open Office and the 9 yards. No
inferior Premium branding and snob appeal, deliver the real thing.

Even a vendor, say HP, say they adopted Linux and developed it. And do like
Apple, the OS and hardware removing the HW issues... M$ would be in big
hurt. This is why MS gets $50 OEM from HP and not $500 for Ultimate. There
is a quiet, but deadly battle going on and MS in their shorts on this.

The porting to Linux is already occurring. I am not sure of this, but HP
seems to offer working Linux drivers for everything. Makes HP printer #1 in
my books. I have no problems for getting drivers but for a few hold outs
like Broadcom (54g) and real odd ball stuff that companies like ATI/AMD want
to forget about like TV Wonder USB 2. But they are dying fast.

Buy Linux friendly, and when the Vista becomes tiresome or a hand me down,
Linux will work right on it. And not hard to do either. I was going to do
that with my XP system in favour of the new system running Vista. But after
trying Vista, I realised my XP system is going to have to last 2-3 years to
see if Linux is better than Win7 or is Win7 going to be what Vista should
have been.