I'M A PC

[Alexandre Oliva]

On Oct 17, 2008, Ricardo <ricardogh at esdebian.org> wrote:

> I will never buy a mac cause I don't pay for a OS that I'll not use.

Paying for software you won't use is a pain, indeed.  I just did that
myself, after my notebook failed and the only replacement I could find
in the market, after much shopping around, that would work reasonably
well with a 100% Free system (even wireless, although no Video 3D
acceleration available at this time) was a Clevo machine repackaged by
Amazon PC.

What really sucks is that Amazon PC manufactures and sells these
notebooks also with a OneOS distro, a repackaging of Kubuntu by a
local supporter/supplier.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find any shops
that had the GNU/Linux version for sale with a minimally-usable
configuration for a heavy developer.

So, I decided to support the vendor whose hardware respected me, and
purchased the machine, in spite of Windows Beasta.  I let the vendor
and the manufacturer know that the only reason I purchased the machine
that way was because they wouldn't offer me choice, and that I'd fight
to be reimbursed for the illegal coupled sale of an item that required
me to accept a contractual change after the sale was completed.

I'll get my lawyer involved, and if I ever get the reimbursement, it
goes straight to FSFLA.  At the very least I'll fight to have it
counted in the Widows Beasta statistics.  I'm *this* close to
returning the machine, because both say they can't reimburse me for
the OS only, but I'm going to be on the road again for most of next
week (which is why I needed a functional notebook so urgently) and
when I return, the return period will have expired.  Talk about bad
timing :-(

Anyhow, when I rationalized the purchase that machine with the
software it came with, I promised myself and the community to fighting
for the reimbursement and against the statistics.  Please cross your
fingers :-)



> And it's not about money, I just don't want to be in Apple's or 
> Microsoft's software consumer statistics.

/me nods

> In case of Apple it's even worst, one pay for a OS that only can be
> used (due to licensing limitations) on a specific hardware.

Windows OEM is no different :-(

> Today there are many notebooks out there that come with Linux 
> pre-installed, or simply empty.

True.  Unfortunately, it seems that GNU/Linux is only available on
machines with very limited resources, at least here in Brazil.  The
market at large still perceives it as a means to reduce costs for
those who can't afford anything better, rather than as something that
any sane person would prefer, and that will make fast machines faster.

> We should really think about that, it goes against our freedom if a
> hardware vendor only sells products that come bundled with a
> proprietary OS.

+1

-- 
Alexandre Oliva         http://www.lsd.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/
Free Software Evangelist  oliva@{lsd.ic.unicamp.br, gnu.org}
FSFLA Board Member       ¡Sé Libre! => http://www.fsfla.org/
Red Hat Compiler Engineer   aoliva@{redhat.com, gcc.gnu.org}