[x-posted]
Now I know this is a controversial topic with many different angles, but I felt this should be discussed to some length here.
On a recent visit to Nehru Place, I was at first pleasantly surprised to see big stacks of LG MyPC branded boxes. I was told that they were selling very well. Costing between Rs.15k-20k, these machines are sold with some Linux distribution preloaded. I asked around and found out that each and every box that got sold in most of these shops at Nehru Place, went through a process of "cleansing" to make the box suitable for the customers. The cleansing process consisted of formatting the hard disk, installing Window XP or Windows 98, with MS Office and Norton Antivirus.
I am not sure whether such an activity should be ignored by the Linux community in India. Yes, this has been reported before [1] in the international press.
My feeling is that this whole business of wiping out Linux and installing Windows is actually hurting the image of Linux significantly in the general population. The hardware resellers are themselves telling the customer that Linux wont work for them, and that they will "take care" that the customers do not "suffer". The customers get an idea of Linux as something that should not be touched, and that Windows is better.
This is weird because the only thing that these kind of customers (home and SOHO) would probably miss out is probably the latest version of Yahoo messenger with audibles .. or some latest games.
If the computer maker (LG in this case, but you have HP/Compaq too now along with Esys) is interested in having the customer use Linux (unlikely 'coz they are mostly box-pushers), they should be concerned with this phenomenon. If the computer maker is not bothered, well I think we should be. It is definitely not good to have Linux associated with these kind of activities.
So do you think the Indian Linux community can and should be doing something about this?
All these activities, kind of dents the dream of having preloaded "Linux on the desktop for everyone" that we try to sell at the LUG meets/talks/exhibitions.
- Sandip
[1] http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/pcworld/20040930/tc_pcworld/117999
-- Sandip Bhattacharya * Puroga Technologies * [EMAIL PROTECTED] Work: http://www.puroga.com * Home: http://www.sandipb.net
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