Loss Leaders and Linux

[ Thanks to Caitlyn Martin for this link. ]

"I was doing some cleaning around the room that serves as my home office, going through a bunch of paperwork. I am a bit of a pack rat and I often save things for far too long, as in way past when they would have any value. One of the things I ran across was a receipt dated December, 2009 for the purchase of my current desktop computer. I bought a low-end, small footprint desktop: an eMachines EL-1300G. The cost at a local big box retailer was $159. A friend of mine was so impressed she went to the store right before Christmas to buy one as a gift for her sister. The price had dropped to $149. Of course, the systems came preloaded with Windows. Linux was not an option.

"The first thing I did with my system when I got it home was make sure that it powered up and seemed to work. The second thing I did was wipe the hard drive and load Linux on it: a 64-bit build of SalixOS. Installation was absolutely straightforward and everything just worked. There is no technical reason this system couldn't be offered preloaded with Linux. (Note: I did not try the old fashioned dial-up modem. I guess some people with low end systems still use dial-up, or did in 2009.)"

Complete Story

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