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Equal opportunity for Linux - let us choose at the checkout what operating system we want for our laptop (backtoeu.eu)

submitted 1 day ago by darko@feddit.org to c/buyfromeu@feddit.org

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As we all know, the EU loves regulation, sometimes even overregulation. One area where I feel that regulation would help is computer hardware sale. When I want to buy a laptop and I visit the online retailers, normally 80% of the laptops come with Windows, 10% Linux and 10% Freedos or without any. I would very much welcome if the EU made it mandatory for manufaturers to offer the choice of OS when buying a new laptop. Just like you chose the color, how much RAM you wanted, SSD size, you could also chose what operating system you want it with. As part of that, manufacturers would be obliged to send a fix donation after every sold piece to the corresponding Linux distro team, which would help the chronic underfunding issue. Not sure how much the manufacturers pay for Windowsfor the license, but theoretically the Linux equivalent machine should be cheaper even after the donation. Any views are welcome.

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[–] Saleh@feddit.org 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I like the idea, but a "required donation" simply is not a donation and probably not legally enforceable.

Just make a law that a "no OS" version must be available for every assembled computer. If manufacturers then want to also offer a pool of linux distros that could come preinstalled, this would be encouraged as the market share of linux distros will grow.

[–] darko@feddit.org 1 points 21 hours ago

"No OS" will not make it to the average internet user, which is 99% of the population. If they have to select, they will select windows. The remaining 1% will figure it out, but that 1% won't make any impact. We need a model that would pave the way for Linux to the average internet user.