On 14 Jan 2012, at 22:58, Thomas Dalton wrote: > I don't see the point of buying Windows and then deleting it, > especially on a machine that is going to be used by lots of different > people. Pretty much everyone is comfortable using Windows, but a lot > of people aren't familiar with Linux. If you can save money by getting > a machine that doesn't come with a copy of Windows, then fine, but if > you've spent the money you might as well get the benefit. You can > dual-boot them if people really want Linux. > > Using open source options where possible is a good policy, but it > shouldn't extend to throwing away software we already own.
I somewhat agree. In particular, I'd rather us buy a laptop that doesn't come with Windows. However, I view installing Linux on a Windows laptops as an upgrade - yes, it's throwing away purchased software, but that software should be thrown away in favour of something better. For context for my position here: I use Mac OS for my laptop, since that has all of the benefits of Linux combined with a somewhat nicer user interface. Linux is the next best thing, and I use that for my (dell) desktop. I've used Windows for many years in the past, and generally view it as being rubbish software that's not reliable in the long run (I used to have to reinstall my computer every 6 months when I was using Windows; nowadays I reboot my Mac laptop and Linux desktop with that same frequency.) Dual-boot's probably the best (compromise) approach to take here, in case Windows is needed for some reason. ... but this is somewhat secondary to the main issue here, which is which hardware we should purchase rather than what software should be utilized on it. That's particularly the case since I would expect the user to be mostly using a cross-platform internet browser rather than platform-specific software. Thanks, Mike _______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
