Linux.com

Given that the first point of call for a consumer should they experience issues with a PC from a large manufacturer such as Dell or HP would be their help desk, and given the obvious price difference between Linux and Windows, you could expect that consumers would take the cheaper option, and then the help desk would be inundated with calls due to the fact that "My Olympus Camera Software Won't load on my new computer with Linux" or similar issues that relate to different OS's.

On the reverse side of this however, is that Linux Distro's cannot expect to get a great deal of penetration in to the home market until these big vendors will actually pre-load a PC with their OS. I don't believe it is any harder for the vendors to do this (In fact I find Windows much more cumbersome and time consuming to load), however you have to consider the flow on to support once the PC is delivered.

I am pretty certain given the cost of Hardware and Windows seperatley that the big vendors are paying a VERY small amount for their OEM Windows Licenses, so if you can spend $50 to put Windows Vista Basic on a PC and save yourself potentially 2-3 hours of support time per PC by doing so, this is the more cost effective option than putting on a Free OS that will cost you potentially many support calls for each remedial home user that gets it.

In short, no-one will make a move to Linux as a pre-loaded OS unless they are able to minimize the money they will need to spend on Post Sales support, and no-one will be able to minimize post sales support issues on Linux until they distribute it for people to learn it.

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