A free market for free software
,----[ Quote ]
| Retailers then have the option of selling a naked PC with no operating
| system, or one with a free operating system, at a discounted price. The
| technology exists to create a European-wide image-distribution system that
| could put any operating system onto any PC at retail, in moments. A sensible
| retailer would keep up with demand by maintaining a small stock of
| ready-to-sell PCs with the operating system of the moment: not an onerous
| requirement. That system could be paid for by the Microsoft fine, and it
| would be open to any operating system whose licence allowed unrestricted
| copying.
|
| There are many benefits to this approach. OEMs and operating-system writers
| will be motivated to keep their images up-to-date with security patches and
| features, minimising their own infrastructure expenses, and it would be an
| interesting new channel to the users. Even Microsoft would be free to join,
| when it produces a free version of Windows. Now that's a real free market.
`----
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/leader/0,1000002982,39289612,00.htm?r=5
Sounds like a solution was finally found, at least for Europe.
Related:
Unbundling Microsoft Windows
,----[ Quote ]
| Computers in the European Union should be sold without a bundled operating
| system, according to this submission to the European Commission. It says that
| the bundling of Microsoft Windows with computers is not in the public
| interest, and prevents meaningful competition in the operating system market.
`----
http://www.globalisation.eu/briefings/competition-policy/unbundling-microsoft-windows-200709231241/
Free-market think tank urges EU to unbundle Windows
,----[ Quote ]
| The Globalisation Institute, a European think-tank run by free market
| advocates, today went on the offensive against Microsoft, calling on the EU
| to require all PCs to be sold without operating systems.
`----
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/09/24/globalisation_institute_windows_bundling/
Ruling: Acer must refund purchase price of preinstalled software that is not
being used
,----[ Quote ]
| In France the "Groupe de travail Détaxe" of the "Association Francophone des
| Utilisateurs de Linux et des Logiciels Libres" (AFUL) [Association of
| French-speaking users of Linux and free software] is one of a number of
| groups calling for an end to what it terms the "OEM tax." In reports
| published in France it says that the case now made public was not the first
| of its kind and that there are indications that in similar court cases where
| decisions are still pending these could in the end be similar to the one just
| published. Since this summer the AFUL campaign by the name of Non aux
| racketiciels is also being supported by the Linux distributor
| Mandriva. "Racketiciel" is composed of "racket" as in English and the
| ending "iciels" taken from "logiciel," the French word for software.
`----
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/96581
French consumer group attacks PC software bundling
,----[ Quote ]
| UFC-Que Choisir legal officer Sandra Wouhling said current
| practice effectively forced ordinary consumers to buy computers
| using Microsoft operating systems whereas companies anda
| dministrations were offered a real choice.
`----
http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20061214:MTFH94365_2006-12-14_14-49-22_L14537403&type=comktNews&rpc=44
http://tinyurl.com/yf7kfu
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