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> In the UK, there are magazines on every shelf in every newsagent pushing Linux and in every PC related stored they are pretty much giving Ubuntu away (yes the

> In the UK, there are magazines on every shelf in every newsagent pushing Linux and in every PC related stored they are pretty much giving Ubuntu away (yes they even had a box at the checkout in PC World with free CDs - completely untouched). You can buy PC's with it preinstalled and buy PCs with no operating system so you can install it. Is this the same UK I live in? The newsagents I see might have one Linux magazine lurking behind the iPad magazines. And you really have to go looking for computers that come with Linux preinstalled or no OS. Dell stopped offering them online, and I haven't seen a Linux PC in a retail store since the brief wave of Linux netbooks. I found a small business that sold me a computer with my choice of distro on, but they didn't really promote the option at all. > If you forcibly removed the bundling, you are going to get nowhere i.e. people saying "Can I just have it with Windows on it" "Sure, that will be £20 extra" (a complete guess at the OEM Windows price) Obviously preinstalled Linux systems aren't going to topple Windows overnight - there's a lot of network effects and familiarity there. But at the same time, it would definitely benefit Linux adoption if consumers regularly saw an option to use Ubuntu, say, with known-good hardware and without having to install it themselves. Not many would take it at first, but a few people would go home and look it up. > Everyone knows what Linux is or has heard of it. Many people have heard of it, certainly, but they often have some vague idea that it's a command-line interface for ultra nerdy experts. That's why Android and Ubuntu both avoid using the word 'Linux' in their public branding.

shmerl 14y ago
>Many people have heard of it, certainly, but they often have some vague idea that it's a command-line interface for ultra nerdy experts. That's why Android and Ubuntu both avoid using the word 'Linux' in their public branding. That actually is a lack of gratitude and failure to improve Linux image on their part. But I agree with the rest of the above. Removing the bundling won't magically solve all issues, but it's a huge blocker which prevents any kind of solutions from reaching the broader audience.
- takluyver 14y ago
  > [Avoiding the word Linux] actually is a lack of gratitude and failure to improve Linux image on their part I don't see it quite like that. Firstly, I'm not sure that the people working on Linux (the kernel) particularly want to be a popular brand - it would mean a deluge of naive questions, apart from anything else. Secondly, Ubuntu benefits from Linux, GNU tools, X, Gnome, Debian, and many other projects. In techie circles, they readily acknowledge that it wouldn't be possible without the work done in those upstream projects. But trying to fit them into the public branding would confuse users.
  - shmerl 14y ago
    For general population, Linux became the name of the whole stack of related technologies rather than the kernel name, so not using it (by Ubuntu at least) is a disservice to everyone involved. I'm OK with Android not using it, since they are too far apart from the rest of the Linux world anyway and aren't benefiting global Linux community much. Just my 2 cents.

shmerl 14y ago

>Many people have heard of it, certainly, but they often have some vague idea that it's a command-line interface for ultra nerdy experts. That's why Android and Ubuntu both avoid using the word 'Linux' in their public branding. That actually is a lack of gratitude and failure to improve Linux image on their part. But I agree with the rest of the above. Removing the bundling won't magically solve all issues, but it's a huge blocker which prevents any kind of solutions from reaching the broader audience.

takluyver 14y ago
> [Avoiding the word Linux] actually is a lack of gratitude and failure to improve Linux image on their part I don't see it quite like that. Firstly, I'm not sure that the people working on Linux (the kernel) particularly want to be a popular brand - it would mean a deluge of naive questions, apart from anything else. Secondly, Ubuntu benefits from Linux, GNU tools, X, Gnome, Debian, and many other projects. In techie circles, they readily acknowledge that it wouldn't be possible without the work done in those upstream projects. But trying to fit them into the public branding would confuse users.
- shmerl 14y ago
  For general population, Linux became the name of the whole stack of related technologies rather than the kernel name, so not using it (by Ubuntu at least) is a disservice to everyone involved. I'm OK with Android not using it, since they are too far apart from the rest of the Linux world anyway and aren't benefiting global Linux community much. Just my 2 cents.