Globalisation Institute to EC: 'Unbundle Microsoft Windows'
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 24th Sep 2007 17:31 UTC, submitted by twickline
Windows "Computers in the European Union should be sold without a bundled operating system, according to this submission to the European Commission. It says that the bundling of Microsoft Windows with computers is not in the public interest, and prevents meaningful competition in the operating system market." This is the conclusion of the Globalisation Instute, a think tank located in Brussels. Please note this is not a(n) (official) statement from the European Commission.
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polaris20
Member since:
2005-07-06

Exactly. You should be given the option to not have anything installed, but it should come with something by default.

The problem I think OEMs have is which distribution out of the thousands to use and have to support, if they were to actually give an optional OS specifically, as opposed to leaving the disk blank.

This is what is slowly happening now; Dell with Ubuntu, and HP supposedly doing something soon.

Reply Parent Score: 3

Soulbender Member since:
2005-08-18

"You should be given the option to not have anything installed, but it should come with something by default."

Well, it doesn't need that. Selecting an OS (or lack of one) would part of the process.
An small unfortunate side effect of this is that it gives more power to the technically clueless sales force that does not necessary care as much for the customer as they do for their sales commission (and possible kickback money from company X).

Reply Parent Score: 2

pashar Member since:
2006-07-12

It should come with several options: install windows, install linux, install freebsd, etc... And none of them should be default.

Reply Parent Score: 1