On 13/03/2011 8:43 p.m., zarul shahrin wrote:
Most of them are preloaded with FeeDos so that the computer price can
be reduced by as much as 1K? Unlike corporate users, most of the home
users don't give a crap whether their OS is legal or pirated, they
just want something cheap (This is especially in Malaysia).
The FreeDOS machines usually are a lower price, but not much lower when
compared to a machine with similar specs and licensed Windows.
Even when it is lower, the savings are nowhere near 1K. The licensed
Windows 7 Home Basic only costs RM350 if you buy it separately.
I bought a new computer this weekend. It came with licensed Windows,
but I chose it based on specifications and price. I couldn't get a
FreeDOS machine with the same specs for a lower price.
If you think people will install Ubuntu instead of Windows just
because it gives them a "legal" OS, then you are wrong. Unless Ubuntu
will let them play the latest Call of Duty, Crysis or whatever game
there is and let them easily have the same setup for Word processing
as in their office (for those non-gamers), otherwise no.
You're right. People don't care about those laws. I would even go a
little further and say that some of those laws are unjust and immoral.
Modern distributions have more than just free licensing, though, and
Linux /is/ better than Windows. I think we've had that discussion many
times already. That's why we're in this group :)
Microsoft has also damaged their customer base. Their negligence in
handling malicious software threats, and stories about systems becoming
unusable or shutting down every two hours after an update all work
against them.
I'm not much of a gamer, but I think that a lot of those games can be
played in Linux using Wine. I can play World of Warcraft using Wine
without any special setup and I know someone else in our KK-LUG who has
played Starcraft with Wine. There are also some companies starting to
develop software that runs natively in Linux.
All of those concerns, plus some others, are repeated when considering
proprietary office software, but OpenOffice.org / LibreOffice is really
high-quality software.
We're not starting from scratch here. Average people (ie: not nerds
like us) have even heard a few of the horror stories about "pirated"
software and the success stories about Open Source Software. It's in
the mainstream media already. This is a good time and place to give
consumers the option.
-- Ghodmode
Best Regards,
Zarul Shahrin
On Sun, Mar 13, 2011 at 8:26 PM, sweemeng ng <swees...@gmail.com
<mailto:swees...@gmail.com>> wrote:
A few of our community events, we did try to have a install fest,
the thing is none worked the way we want. Probably we did it the
wrong way(?) or we talking to the wrong audience(?). Really I
don't know.
Maybe because it is easy for them to get illegal copy of windows,
or in university MSDN give them the latest anyway. Again really I
don't know the real reason. But this is base on feel and observation.
On Sun, Mar 13, 2011 at 8:12 PM, Ghodmode <ghodm...@ghodmode.com
<mailto:ghodm...@ghodmode.com>> wrote:
I went to the PIKOM PC fair this weekend and I saw a whole
bunch of computers with FreeDOS installed. The people selling
them didn't hesitate to offer "unlicensed" windows, though.
It seems like this would be a very good opportunity for people
in our community. We could treat it like a Linux
installfest... give out Ubuntu (or any distro) discs and offer
to do the installation for free. Then we give out our our
business card and offer to do support for low rates paid into
the local economy.
This way, people have a more information and more choices...
unusable FreeDOS, illegal windows (maybe RM50), or fully
updated and licensed Ubuntu with all the features.
It inspired a blog entry...
"What the heck is FreeDOS?" : http://bit.ly/g44haf
If you like it, post a comment on the blog... it makes me feel
good :)
--
Ghodmode
http://www.ghodmode.com/blog
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