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Just buy from one of the dozens of vendors that sell linux already installed on laptops and desktops.
Or turn secure boot off.
My latest board has UEFI & secure boot, and once I added a Windows 8 drive to the machine it blocked all of the other drives from booting (including the Windows 7 drive) until SB was disabled.
Except that Microsoft is requiring hardware manufacturers to have SecureBoot on permanently, with no way of disabling, on ARM devices. So, if you want to install an alternative OS on that netbook, you're out of luck.
Red Hat Developer Matthew Garrett has been working with the Secure Boot standards-makers, and he recently described how users can replace the Microsoft cryptographic keys that ship with Windows 8 with their own keys and then sign any software that they want so it can run on their machine.
However, the issue still remains: being able to buy a PC without having to buy a Windows license as well.
It seems immoral that one would be forced to buy a Windows license just to be able to purchase a PC. Talk about trying to monopolize...
Peace,
brian
Who's forcing you to buy a Windows license to get a PC? If you're capable of wiping Windows off of the machine and reinstalling an alternate OS, then you're more than capable of snapping together the 6 or 8 parts in the average computer.
If you are looking for Pre-Loaded / Pre-Configured machines with Linux, there are a number of companies that sell them as well.
Who's forcing you to buy a Windows license to get a PC? If you're capable of wiping Windows off of the machine and reinstalling an alternate OS, then you're more than capable of snapping together the 6 or 8 parts in the average computer.
If you are looking for Pre-Loaded / Pre-Configured machines with Linux, there are a number of companies that sell them as well.
At the moment, yes.
I think Microsoft's dream is to have every PC on the market with Windows on it. Want a PC? Pay the "Windows tax."
My question is: why are people still using Windows????
Peace,
brian
When Linux or MacOS can run all of my games without any compatibility software and will support video card upgrades out of the box with no hackery required, I might quit using Windows. Until then, Windows remains the easiest choice for gaming. Not to mention commercial usage. That said, I have a macbook as well. Some of my steam games are available on Mac by default, a fair number of them are not.
When Linux or MacOS can run all of my games without any compatibility software and will support video card upgrades out of the box with no hackery required, I might quit using Windows. Until then, Windows remains the easiest choice for gaming. Not to mention commercial usage. That said, I have a macbook as well. Some of my steam games are available on Mac by default, a fair number of them are not.
Yes, it seems that the area where Linux lacks most is in gaming. (I'm not into gaming, so I'm just going by what I've heard from others.)
But what I do know a bit about, is virtual music synthesizers. And many of them, although VST (Windows-based), they are often made using apps such as SynthEdit, which is available for anyone to use. So, in a way, there is a type of "freedom" even in the Windows realm, and that I think will grow.
My guess is, as time goes by, more and more apps will be created by the public, and the open-source approach will increase.
This is because a computer is not a washing machine. It's not such a closed, end-product item. It can be used in a variety of ways, and this is the "strength" of the PC. In order to flourish, it has to stay that way.
Otherwise, we'd just have one or two companies constantly dictating what you can and can't have installed on your PC. And that is akin to tyranny.
Peace,
brian
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