List,
I wanted to bounce some thoughts off your collective minds. I recently saw an ad for a cheap laptop launched by HCL - probably trying to compete with the XO and the Eee, with a 7" LCD. Contrary to their image so far of being friendly to FOSS, they seem to be preloading MS-ware (discount versions?) on this PC. I think FOSS starts with a big handicap when manufacturers offer preloaded Windows even in case of computers intended for home or educational use.
Should the community start the two following, connected initiatives?
1. Lobby local computer makers like HCL and Zenith to offer an option for loading Linux or selling systems without a pre-loaded OS (and with a tiny little discount). The pre-installed OS can be on a secondary partition, to allow Windows to be installed on a primary partition at the user's option later. I know, the manufacturers would risk paying the Microsoft Tax (TM) heavily if they tried to do anything like this, but this could at least help bring an unfair practice out into the open.
2. Build up an effort to force Microsoft to let its boot loader recognize and (hopefully) accommodate other operating systems that have been installed previously. This would at least keep them intact instead of being overwritten / rendered unusable when the user inevitably installs Windows, licensed or unlicensed, thus keeping up the possibility that it will get used sometimes, even out of curiosity.
Your constructive comments please.