Nishit Dave wrote:
- 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.
There are not many FOSS engineers available to service FOSS based computers. It brings to my mind a question for all:-
How much does a FOSS service provider charge to install GNU/Linux on a computer? What would be the annual maintenance cost per year per FOSS based system? Any average figures?
Another problem is that FOSS is ready for the people, but people are not ready for FOSS. Both users as well as programmers/developers. A guy working for one of the biggest software companies in India told me that FOSS programmers are few and too expensive. Windows based pros are available in lots. Software giants that make banking software use things like dot net for banking solutions. How can such software be expected to run on FOSS? Everyone is looking at the economical side of hiring cheaper programmers who are available by the dozen.
- 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.
This need not be a major issue if a handy CD is made available that a user simply pops in and restores the GRUB boot loader by simply clicking Yes in a dialog box.