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Free and cheapFree and cheapPosted Apr 4, 2009 19:34 UTC (Sat) by jiu (subscriber, #57673)In reply to: Free and cheap by man_ls Parent article: Light and Cheap, Netbooks Are Poised to Reshape PC Industry (New York Times)
Actually... I meant it both ways: the article never mentions freedom of modification and redistribution, and I didn't know that Canonical or Xandros would make hardware makers pay for their distros (thought it was $0). Is it because they're including non-free components specially for them?
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Free and cheap Posted Apr 4, 2009 19:48 UTC (Sat) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link] Xandros is indeed a non-free distribution (you cannot redistribute it freely). Ubuntu is mostly free (except for branded components I guess). I am not sure about the netbook distro, but it is probably the same; in any case a hardware maker could download a copy, remove all proprietary components and add back whatever they like. But OEMs pay for customization and integration anyway; in the end it is a per-unit fee quite similar to a license, albeit (in this case) much lower.The above is pretty much speculation, but the real picture should not be too far off.
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