Linux, we have a PR problem (ITnews)

From what I have seen of the last few computers I purchased retail(*) they currently come
pre-installed not just with MS-Windows (XP, Vista whatever) but also with a large collection
of demoware and marketing fluff (including some music, video clips etc).  Gigabytes of that
crap.

For example I bought myself a laptop and it came with "XP Media Center Edition" and enough
garbage to fill two DVD-R (DL?) discs.  The HP intro software explained that, if you wanted to
create rescue media you would need 4 DVD-R blanks or 2 DVD-R(DL) blanks to do the job (if I
recall correctly --- maybe it was only 1 dual layer DVD blank.  It's been awhile).

The point is that XP doesn't take up nearly that much disk space.

There were demos of MS Office, of Roxio, of some jukebox software, some DVD video viewing
software, anti-virus software, and several games, and I don't remember all the other junk.
There were a few diffent AOL and Juno or NetZero or whatever ISP sign-ups packages, etc.

Notice this isn't shareware. It isn't gratis-ware.  Clearly the manufacturers are being paid
to preload all that junk.  Powering on that system was like stepping unto the Las Vega Strip
--- being inundated with lurid pandering.

I've heard estimates that some manufacturers get about $200 per unit for all the garbage they
put on every consumer laptop.  That's why I can get a quality, widescreen, dual core laptop
with 2GB of RAM and 100GB or so of disk (and dual-layer LightScribe(TM) DVD-(R, R/W, RAM) and
various other bells and whistles for less than $1000.

To displace MS Windows on commodity consumer computing devices we have to displace and entire
marketplace of deep-pocketed advertisers.

As Linux becomes more popular we'll see a continuing migration towards software as a service
(MMORPG games vs. traditional standalone games, for example; I've found it's increasingly
difficult when looking at PC game software to find titles that can be played offline and
without a subscription).  Those are niches where a Linux could host the adware just as well as
MS Windows.

However much of the shovelware I saw on my system when I first bought it was stuff that would
not be commercially viable for Linux.  OpenOffice.org in lieu of MS Office; no sort of
anti-virus or anti-spyware is required on Linux ... and ClamAV is free ... and various bits of
Mozilla security enhancements are freely available; CD and DVD burning and authoring software,
as well as music/jukebox and video watching software (vis a vis: MPlayer and Totem, etc) are
free ... etc.

So only a small percentage of the shovelware would have any prayer of generating revenue back
to the advertisers if it was pre-installed on Linux.

(BTW: the system, as delivered, was shockingly limited in real functionality.  I couldn't even
watch a video without paying to register a bit of that shovelware --- which, of course, meant
that I waiting until after I had the system re-partitioned and Linux installed in the other
half of the drive; which, if course, entailed burning that set of "rescue" DVDs; there was one
really old Windows game I wanted to play on that system --- one that I'd played a few times at
my sister-in-law's and later seen on a software discount aisle at the local Fry's; later when
my Windows did manage to get munched --- restoring the DVDs took over 10 hours, blowing away
my Linux partition, of course; and then still didn't work correctly.  So I bought another copy
of XP so I could install that without all the other garbageware and without scragging my Linux
partition in the future.  Probably almost half of the copies of MS Windows sold are installed
on machines that already had another licensed copy of MS Windows on them but were the wrong
flavor or because the system was sold with Windows to a company that separately engages in a
bulk-licensing arrangement and routines re-images all incoming systems with their own
customized OS images).

So, it's not about saving $100 dollars.  To the laptop or consumer desktop system's vendor
that $100 dollars you want to save could cost them as much as $200 in advertising revenue (for
HP, Dell, etc). (That's probably why Dell only offers Linux on specific, mostly business
oriented, systems --- for example).

As to the original article: silly reporter!  Hear one anecdote and extrapolate a broad
pronouncement there from.  Need to get N words to the editor by deadline --- and any plausible
sounding drivel is fine so long as it generates page views.  In fact, drivel like this can be
better than anything that is insightful because of Slashdot surfer rage ---  large numbers of
people reading the article as fodder for their own rants to rail about the author's stupidity.
It's an almost slapstick comedy.

JimD


 * (I've gotten lazy in my middle-age; I used to buy components and assemble my own computers
--- but in particular I now tend to buy laptops as presents for some of my immediate family).

Yes, OO.o is compatible to MS O. in significat extent, but when you are deeply relying on
internal and external programmability of the latter, the former just could not serve as a
drop-in replacement to you.

Other MS lockin-traps, as was mentioned many times before, are Exchange+Outlook and Active
Directory. That's why most of us (industrial, not home users) would not collect enough
political and technical will to jump off the Microsoft's needle in years and years ahead.