Could there be a law to protect the free choice of operating system?

[howard]

Hi

On 5/3/2013 16:40, Albert Dengg wrote:
> hi,
> On Tue, Mar 05, 2013 at 04:20:11PM +0000, howard wrote:
>> I think the car analogy is quite meaningless. The car manufacturers
>> are entirely responsible for the car as a system and cannot sell it
>> without stringent safety criteria being met. This would not be
>> possible without them having control over the components and their
>> integration into the whole system. There are bits they could leave
>> out such as radios but not anything necesaary to drive the car.
> well, i did not bring it up, i was just repling to the topic at hand...
> as for only beeing able to sell as whole:
> i don't think it's true, as there are also for example kit cars...but
> that is getting quite offtopic here.
>
>> The OS in a computer is more like the driver of the car. The car
>> company is not responsible for how anyone drives, provided the car
>> is designed in such a way to make it safe for suitable drivers (e.g.
>> not children, or people who have some disability unless it has been
>> modied). Computers can run perfectly well under many different
>> operation systems provided they are built with the appropriate
>> compatibility. The monopoly enjoyed by Microsoft prevents consumers
>> choosing their OS of choice. For software that runs under Windows I
>> prefer XP, but my laptop bundled with Windows 7 home edition cannot
>> be "downgraded" to XP. This is quite wrong and trading standards
>> organisations are wrong to let MS get away with their domination of
>> the hardware manufacturers and retail distributer network.
> well, while somewhat true this is not completly the point here either...
> even though the car company might not get sued for something the driver
> does...nobody has ever tried to sue MS or the hardware vendor for what
> the user does with the computer.
I agree. I'm sorry I wasn't very clear. The vendors should sell 
computers enabled for any OS, just like a car can be driven by any driver.

best
Howard
>
> yours,
> albert
>
>
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