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Comment by franga2000 | Hacker News Reader

franga2000

The "helping sell hardware without Windows" part is actually more like "helps PC vendors exploit a legal loophole and Microsoft keep its market share". They could just as easily install Ubuntu/whatever on computers that don't ship with Windows, but that might make some people stick with it and immediately install Windows on it. But if they put a useless OS like FreeDOS on there, they can check the "has OS" box, as well as the "no bundled license" box, without any risk to Microsoft's market dominance.

Hell, I think HP actually did put Linux on some of their laptops, but just as a compatibility layer to run FreeDOS, since they couldn't get it to work directly. This was clearly done for Microsoft's benefit and nobody else's - don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

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“If it weren’t for _, it would surely be the year of Linux on the desktop” is not a new cry, but I don’t think I’ve seen FreeDOS used as the culprit before. Funny stuff.

I don't think this practice is in Microsoft's interest. People who buy a PC with FreeDOS usually install a pirated copy of Windows (or Linux, but not sure what the exact proportion of those is), which definitely doesn't contribute to M$'s bottom line...

Microsoft would far prefer you installing a pirated copy of windows to installing Linux.

Only WinDev, Azure, Office, XBox business units couldn't care less, they get their share of the pie, regardless.

Windows development currently sucks, versus Balmer era, and is full of Web developers for a reason.

Microsoft is the reason why this practice exists in the first place. Their Windows distribution contracts with OEMs say that all computers that an OEM ships must be preloaded with an OS (likely for the piracy issue you mention). Shipping FreeDOS allows OEMs to sell computers to people who don't want to pay for Windows licenses while also not having to provide support for Linux (or some other alternative OS).

On the contrary, being the primary desktop OS that everyone uses and thus everyone supports is Windows' biggest advantage. Anything that helps thingns stays that way contributes to Microsofts bottom line.

The get the money back via Azure Cloud OS (> 60% workloads on Linux), Microsoft 365 subscriptions and XBox.

They monetize your data.

Dell has been selling laptops with Linux for years. A few of the others have too.

Linux took a while to become supported on specific Dell models, https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-ubuntu-linux-snuck-into-hi...

> Barton recalled O'Grady suggesting it would be great for developers "if you took one of your laptops, put Ubuntu on it, and just got it to work. We said that's an awesome idea, but it'll never happen, because we're talking about Dell. Our laptops need to deliver huge volumes and revenue. When I talked to one of our higher-ups about the volumes that we thought we would sell, he said, 'Yeah, that's what we sell in Belgium on Tuesday, between three and four in the afternoon.' Despite this disheartening evaluation, when Dell started an in-house innovation fund, Barton pitched it again. This time, he was granted $40,000 to pursue the idea.

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