cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/11958306
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.
At least Lenovo already has this option in some laptop models. I bought a Thinkpad last September and it had an option to buy it with Windows, Ubuntu or without any OS. It really should be the standard
Yeah that is good news, but as you say, it should be the standard. I’m wondering if they make any donations for Ubuntu. I know they don’t have to