this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2025
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Linux

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 32 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Wow, I didn't realize the windows tax was that high. I thought the bulk OEM licensing was significantly cheaper than the retail price.

[–] Corngood@lemmy.ml 25 points 1 month ago (3 children)

It's kind of absurd. When you buy a TV, the bloated adware at least helps lower the price. Imagine paying extra for it.

[–] ferric_carcinization@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Why would it lower the price? Don't ads only exist to generate a bit of extra revenue?

[–] markinov@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 month ago

Lower the price of the TV

[–] FrameXX@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

For TVs the manufacturers are the ones who control the bloated adware and make money off of it while on notebooks and laptops it is Micro$oft. Except maybe for TVs coming with Android TV OS, but I think even that can be modified to promote their services.

[–] Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago

I thought it was as much as the $10-$20 keys from key resellers.

[–] phantomwise@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 month ago

The price difference does make sense, it's the cost to cover therapy for the employee that was forced to preinstall Windows on a computer for the thousandth time

[–] mukt@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is only for Thinkpads which are offered as customized units and have a longer shipping time.

[–] sibachian@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

incorrect. currently sporting an ideapad pro that i bought directly from lenovo last year and it came without windows pre-installed.

[–] mukt@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

Which country?

[–] reallyzen@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Currently in France No OS is -€60 and with Fedora or Ubuntu it's -€30

Don't ask. Different markets, pricing irrelevant to actual costs

[–] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The cost is what Canonical wants.

[–] reallyzen@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

And redhat. But only in Europe.

[–] vfreire85@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 month ago

nothing new. here in brazil many manufacturers, dell included, would ship laptops with linux and then people would shove a pirated windows copy on it.

[–] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago

SteamOS is next.

[–] pineapple@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 month ago

It's HAPPENING!

[–] zulfiqaramer@lemmings.world 4 points 1 month ago
[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Windows is free for anyone to use indefinitely... If you're OK with a persistent watermark.

Why even add a premium to the laptop? Let the user decide to use windows as-is, pay a license, or switch to Linux. 🤭

[–] unwarlikeExtortion@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago

In practice. Technically, were M$ to go sue users left and right (or send those ISP-style "gotcha", now pay up) emails.

Luckiy, M$ knows well enough that 90% of that userbase wouldn't have too many qualms jumping ship if they got slapped with a huge fine, so M$ lets them be.

They value the high userbase more than a quick payout (and rightly so). However, there's no guarantee that can't change overnight (just look at Unity and before that, Adobe).

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Didn’t RTA. What distro?

[–] menemen@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Fedora or Ubuntu. But I'd say the important part is that they probably provide all necessary drivers.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Usually enabling Ubuntu’s third party / proprietary repo covers all necessary drivers.

I remember having lots of driver issues on fedora but that was like two decades ago. I’d imagine they have that sorted now.

Anyway this is good news. Grow the user base.

[–] menemen@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

On a notebook it still can be troublesome. I know from very recent Asus TUF experience....

[–] pmk 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I like the debian way with a separate repo for the non-free things needed for the hardware to function, so it's not all or nothing. I want my wifi to work, but beyond things like that I only want free software.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 month ago

Debian was interesting with their back port / forward port repos for drivers on newer hardware. I had to grab a wifi driver and put it on a USB stick, then figure out the dir to put it in so I didn’t have to manually modprobe or whatever to manually load the driver.

20 years ago on fedora I had to manually mod probe like three different drivers to get my PCMCIA Broadcom wifi card to work. I’m sure fedora is better by now, but damn I still have bad memories about that.

[–] dan@upvote.au 2 points 1 month ago

These seem to be the two most commonly supported distros by laptop manufacturers. Framework officially support these two distros, too (they have unofficial guides for a bunch of other distros though)