"I will never cease to be amazed at how fast things change and
how quickly people forget. Today's example is a Slashdot posting
with the title, 'Why Buy a PC Preloaded with Linux?' Specifically,
the dotter--slasher really doesn't give the right tone--wants to
know ''Why should I buy a PC preloaded with Linux?' They are more
expensive, and it's not hard just to reformat the PC with Linux. I
hate paying the Microsoft Tax as much as anybody else, but if
paying that 'tax' allows companies to reduce my price by bundling
with my PC products that I will never use, why wouldn't I just buy
a Windows-loaded PC and reformat?'
"Oh dear. Let's start at the top. Sometimes Linux computers are
more expensive than their otherwise identical brothers with XP.
But, they're not always more expensive. This kind of statement of
'fact' in a question always makes my FUD detector start to
beep..."