Ubuntu Bug #1 Finally Closed

[SimonMac]

Microsoft has a majority market share in the new desktop PC marketplace. This is a bug which Ubuntu and other projects are meant to fix. As the philosophy of the Ubuntu Project states, "Our work is driven by a belief that software should be free and accessible to all."

This bug is widely evident in the PC industry.

Steps to repeat:

1. Visit a local PC store.
2. Attempt to buy a machine without any proprietary software.

What happens:

Almost always, a majority of PCs for sale have Microsoft Windows pre-installed. In the rare cases that they come with a GNU/Linux operating system or no operating system at all, the drivers and BIOS may be proprietary.

What should happen:

A majority of the PCs for sale should include only free software.

A tongue in cheek entry, but with the rise of non-PC operating systems (iOS and Android) one that Mark Shuttlworth feels able to now close

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1/comments/1834

[VectraMan]

Is iOS free and accessible to all?

[Ticktock]

Not to take this too seriously, but (I like a big but and I cannot lie)...

So he's closing a "bug" for MS having a majority in the desktop PC marketplace, because, across all form factors, they don't have a majority?

I'm not a true techie like most on here, but isn't that the sort of thing you'd accuse Bob's of?

In any case, while Windows is proprietory I certainly don't feel locked down by it - I can buy / download software from multiple vendors to help me do what I want to do, with Windows just sitting in the background giving me an easy way to launch and use them. How that's different from Ubuntu, besides the fact that it gives me an easy way to launch and use them, is beyond me. They may not charge for Ubuntu, but beyond that, where's the benefit to me as a user?

[vetran]

Not to take this too seriously, but (I like a big but and I cannot lie)...

So he's closing a "bug" for MS having a majority in the desktop PC marketplace, because, across all form factors, they don't have a majority?

Mitch wouldn't!

[SueEllen]

In any case, while Windows is proprietory I certainly don't feel locked down by it

The European Commission begged to differ especially with browsers.

How that's different from Ubuntu, besides the fact that it gives me an easy way to launch and use them, is beyond me. They may not charge for Ubuntu, but beyond that, where's the benefit to me as a user?

Ubuntu never locked you into using a particular browser like MS.

It's more about MS having anti-competitive practices due to their market dominance.

[SimonMac]

The European Commission begged to differ especially with browsers.


Ubuntu never locked you into using a particular browser like MS.

It's more about MS having anti-competitive practices due to their market dominance.

That has always thrown me as Apple are now just as bad, but they always seem to get away with more

[SueEllen]

That has always thrown me as Apple are now just as bad, but they always seem to get away with more

Apple had a much smaller share in the PC market which is why they have got away with it.

With mobile devices there are enough competitors for them, and some of these competitors are just as nasty as Apple in their court dealings.

[VectraMan]

The European Commission begged to differ especially with browsers.

Ubuntu never locked you into using a particular browser like MS.

I'm staggered by the ignorance of that statement.

MS were told to put an (extremely annoying) advert for other browsers into Windows. They never "locked you into" using IE, indeed the first thing many people would do is download and install a different browser. This isn't iOS you know; MS have never tried to in any way restrict what you can install (until Windows 8 apps anyway, but there they're very much following the path established by Apple).

Last time I installed Ubuntu it came with Firefox, no other browsers. By supplying a browser by default with the OS, Ubuntu are doing exactly the same thing as MS did with Windows.

I can't understand why Shuttleworth is gloating. Something else has come along and largely knocked Windows off its perch, but it isn't his product. He's been as big a failure at spotting the rise of smartphones and tablets as Gates & co.

[Ticktock]

The European Commission begged to differ especially with browsers.


Ubuntu never locked you into using a particular browser like MS.

It's more about MS having anti-competitive practices due to their market dominance.

What a load of bollox. Flat out untrue.

MS never locked me into using their browser. When my friend's dad got the internet (he worked for what was AWRE, which became AWE) in the early 90's one of the first things done was to install Netscape Navigator. We weren't locked into using IE, it was just the default provided. Should I complain that if I buy a car I'm locked into using the car stereo provided? It was always much easier to swap a browser than to swap a car stereo. They never "locked" you in - they pre-installed something that was easy to swap out.

The only way you used to be locked in was by requiring an MS product (IE) to run updates on another MS product (Windows Update - when it was browser based). The EC did not "beg to differ". They never said that you were locked in to using IE by using Windows, but that MS used their dominance of the OS market to unfairly promote their browser (the fact that IE was preinstalled when other browsers weren't).

I think it was a pretty stupid ruling to force the browser choice tulip (I actually typed tulip instead of sh*t) on everyone, but at the same time I can understand the less tech-savvy not understanding / caring about changing their browser unless forced to think about it. If the consumer had to pay for browsers I could understand it more, but the argument that MS were unfairly influencing the use of one free product over other free products and that this harms the consumer is crap.


EDIT: Sorry, may have come across as a bit hostile. In the airport lounge and the gin made me do it when I saw something factually incorrect.

[Ticktock]

He's been as big a failure at spotting the rise of smartphones and tablets as Gates & co.

He's been worse. Gates & co spotted the tablet market and tried to produce support for it. Unfortunately both they, and the hardware companies, did a fairly crappy job of it. I remember Dell producing resistive touch convertibles long after capacitive touch devices had come along, and this is when Dell were the no. 1 PC hardware company.