Posted on 03/24/2015 7:52:28 AM PDT by ShadowAce
So if you need to troubleshoot windows or copy your files off the hard drive because windows will not boot then you cannot insert a Linux cd to boot to?
How about a usb flash drive?
Another thing i learned is to buy lenovo, hp, ibm or dell if you want to put linux on laptop. I went from acer to lenovo
When Apple exhibits fascist-level control over their platform, people applaud them for maintaining control and ensuring system stability. When Microsoft does it, people growls.
Interesting...
Maybe they are truly trying to stabilize their environment by closing some doors? They’ve been a pretty open platform, comparatively speaking to, say, Apple, but not Linux.
Apple produces and sells it's own hardware for its own OS.
MS produces an OS to run on commodity hardware that they do not (ostensibly) control or produce.
All the really good stuff in Windows was developed by Intel like USB, PCIe and advanced power management.
The rest of Windows is a hack.
If Apple can get a true USB working seamlessly, MS will be in serious trouble.
Couldn’t someone get around this by running other Operating Systems on VMs?
No real help for direct hardware access.
Would anyone at all like to bet against Microsoft offering special deals for those system makers that completely exclude Linux? I need some easy money.
Sooooo... you can choose NOT to install Windows and just install Linux on whatever hardware you buy. How is MS the bad guy there?
And, to clarify, I get that this is collaboration with hardware manufacturers, but so what? Sony collaborates with game makers to run on the ps4. Do we blame Sony for not running Wii games?
I’m thinking that if I ever get afflicted with Windows 10 (an unfortunate reality due to work obligations), I’ll just build Linux Virtual Machines for when I’m not using it for work stuff and surf/game/etc within that VM.
Lots of big corporations have severely hurt themselves by taking a “my way or the highway” approach. Sony comes to mind with Betamax and several other schemes.
Right now Microsoft is “danger close” to forcing millions of users to use Linux exclusively. It does so by being arrogant, insulting, intrusive, and so top heavy that users have no other choice.
All that is needed is for some company to produce a version of Linux that is efficient because it provides what users want, not what they think users need.
You seem to be misunderstanding the situation.
The problem is that a majority of pre-built Intel-based computers, that would run Linux just fine, are forcibly pre-loaded with Windows. You can't get them without paying the Windows tax.
So you pay the Windows tax, scrape Windows off the hard drive, and *** OH CRAP! *** you can't install Linux because Microsoft told the OEM hardware manufacturer to make it impossible to defeat the lock-out.
Sure, they phrase it as "optional". They have to say that. But if you think there isn't a lot of pressure being applied, you're willfully blind. This is MS SOP and has been for decades. Those of us who have multiple feet in all these camps every day -- Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD, etc. -- are very used to this crap, and cannot be easily fooled.
That said, Microsoft is not "the bad guy". What they're doing is not illegal. They're merely being assholes.
Sorry, you won't get me to take that bet. :)
But really, is there anything illegal about what they're doing? No. It's business. I may not like it, but I can't fault it as long as it's legal.
What the hardware manufacturers need to do is produce a series of identical machines with one difference -- no lockout, and no Windows installed.
I would say, "with Linux installed", but there are approximately 10 gazillion distros and releases and variants, and there's no way to justify the expense of supporting that diversity. Maybe make it an option to pre-install Linux. But overall, let the Linux user pick and choose.
1. Didn’t Fedora have to pay MS $1 to get Fedora signed?
2. There are two cases - one is you have a *computer* preloaded with windoze. Second case is you buy a *Mobo* a CPU, RAM etc. I think there will always be Mobos that you can buy that will load linux.
However, in this case what we'll end up seeing is ultimately less power and choice to the consumer. This itself is almost always a bad thing.
If you recall what happened with IE once Microsoft was satisfied with having killed off Netscape, and owned 90%+ of the browser market, is that development and features of IE ground to a halt. For years. It took Firefox's and Opera's innovations to get them to finally get off the stick and start actually improving IE.
I'm sure we'll figure out a way around Microsoft's bullying and bribery, but that just means I'll be building computers myself rather than buy something integrated and then wipe out the existing OS.
So...just run a Linux OS in a VM using Virtual Box. I've done it and it works great. You even have access to the Windows OS for file sharing between the two.
In fact, you can run a bridged connection to the hardware NIC and then shut off TCP/IP on the Windows side...thus denying access to Windows via the internet. So go ahead and use XP if you like.
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