With computers now shipping with UEFI Secure Boot enabled, users of any OS other than Windows 8 will want to know how to circumvent it. Jesse Smith of DistroWatch tells how he did it here. The Linux Foundation describes its approach here. If you want to boot an OS other than Windows 8, you'll want to figure this out before you buy that new computer.
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Member since:2005-07-06
What you see at my place, the availability of many non-OS and "Linux" laptops, is almost certainly not only because of Linux market share.
As I wrote, IIRC, before - large part of those machines end up with Windows, anyway (oh, and that's no-crapware-included Windows, rather decent) - at best a MSDNAA license. It's just a way to save money on the license; to offer people, who in the end want Windows, a less expensive machine.
Generally, Linux is often just a smokescreen of the reputable big PC maker, who can say ~"we don't facilitate piracy, all of our machines are sold with an operating system" or such. The devil can be in the details: in one case I've seen, it was just a Knoppix live-DVD thrown into the box; in one other, some Linux installation which didn't boot into X. Few years ago, HP even sold laptops with "DOS2000"...
Yes, HP - if you'd look at the link I provided, those are laptops from big PC makers, also US-based; Dell shows up too.
Member since:2011-01-28
zima,
I suspect the real reason most vendors won't sell no-os is much simpler: it's more profitable to oversell windows licenses (to both linux and windows users) than sell them only when a new license is needed by the customer.
I predict vendors will continue to be uncompetitive on alt-os until it reaches a 5% market share (1 in 20), at which point vendors will become interested in taking a larger stake in the linux market causing the market to snowball. We're still in a catch-22 phase though, it could be a long while before it changes.
Edited 2012-12-11 19:27 UTC
So, the Xbox One disaster continues. Microsoft's policy for dealing with the used games market has reportedly leaked - and it's a clear and direct attack to destroy the used games market. Prices for used games will be set at the retail value of a new game, and retailers have to hook into Microsoft's computer systems and comply with Microsoft's terms and conditions.At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.
Member since:
2011-01-28
zima,
For one thing, linux probably enjoys a greater market share in Europe than North America (1.14 vs 0.72).
http://royal.pingdom.com/2011/05/12/the-top-20-strongholds-for-desk...
http://royal.pingdom.com/2008/08/21/linux-popularity-across-the-glo...
So, if there were a linear relationship between market share and venders, we'd expect to see 60% more linux vendors in europe. However in reality it's probably more of a power distribution where 99% of venders service the top 90% of the market (numbers are just illustrative). So the linux market may just not have the market share needed to spark interest in any significant US vendors.
The power distribution is often the result of a cyclic pattern: the US linux market share is small because there are so few vendors because the linux market share is small, etc. The difference between the US and Europe may have been the lack of governance in the US stemming back to the days when MS was committing flagrant anti-trust behaviours in those years before the feds stepped in. Or it may be as simple as linux having had a head start in europe because of it's European roots. Or maybe microsoft has more government ties in the US, with rippling effects down to contractors and the private sector.