Dell and Linux

Well now. I come with some good news to all in the computer world. Especially all of us who like to use Linux. Unfortunately it doesn't have to do with Ubuntu.... but that doesn't matter. It's a first step to a better world, and it looks like my rant about Linux and China might become void in the future.

My rant is a little something like this. Ever since I went to China in 2002 for the first time I realized right then and there that China is going to become a very powerful world power, economically, in the next few years. I say by 2010 they will be as economically as well off as any European nation. So the smartest thing to do is for all of us to learn Chinese, and for corporations to try and get their foot in the door there in China. So for the past year I have been saying Linux needs to do this with the computers. Microsoft is basically a monopoly there in China. Yet something recently caught my eye.

I have read an article about how someone found out Dell is sending Linux boxes out with Red Flag Linux in them. The thing is, it turns out it is in China. I'd be happier if it was Ubuntu. I think our Ubuntu guys really need to start pushing harder to get Ubuntu out there. Anyway, from what I understand Dell pretty much can't put Linux on their boxes here in the US because of something that went on between them and Microsoft a few years ago. During that time it didn't matter. Linux was still in it's infancy for the Desktop as far as I'm concerned....even though there has been that whole Dell Idea Storm, and many people voted for Dell to put Linux on the boxes...so I'm not so sure about this contract with Microsoft. Let me get back to the point though.

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I think we need a gigantic country like China to come in and make things better in the computer world. Meaning that we have a place, now, where Microsoft has no real legal foot hold. We have a place where the majority of people no matter poor or rich get Microsoft for free everyday anyway. All together I have spent a month and a half in China during my whole life. During these times I often seen people selling Microsoft XP on the street for what would be equal to just a few dollars in the US. The funny thing is Microsoft gets none of the profits from that. I still doubt that Vista is being pirated in China and the other countries that were mentioned. I mean I'm sure it is being pirated, I'm just not so sure that it is being pirated that much. All the Chinese people I know still prefer XP.

Now some people buy Windows legally out there. Still, the majority of the people get it for free. So Microsoft has no real hold except that the majority of the programs that most Chinese people would use are written for Microsoft and not Linux. Even though Linux doesn't need those programs. Linux has it's own programs that compete just as well.

So I'm pretty happy about the initial situation. I hope this is the beginning to a world growing in Linux, and a world stepping away from Microsoft. All I can say is this about Microsoft. Microsoft burnt it's own bridges through the years. They wanted to be stingy, they wanted to rule everything, and I don't blame them for wanting to rule the world... Still if you want to rule the world you can't be so stingy. You have to give something more than poor products....more than half of the time.

Yes things got better with Microsoft XP. I can probably count on both of my hands how many times XP has crashed on me since I first got it in 2003. It has become a lot more sturdy compared to Win 98 and ME. Still as far as I'm concerned it lacks flexibility. That's what I want is flexibility without having to buy it. Linux offers all of us flexibility. Hopefully it will shine in China, and the rest of the world will see this and follow in China's foot steps. After all for thousands of years China was much more advanced compared to the rest of the world. So let's hope China can prove how advanced it really is and lead the world in populating it with Linux.

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Dell and Linux