dbclinton <dbc...@gmail.com> wrote: > All that is certainly true: there definitely are OEMs selling machines with > Linux pre-installed. In fact, based on your list, far more than I'd > imagined.
Virtually everyone of any size does Linux these days ... Including desktop, workstation and ... tada ... notebook! > I myself had very good experiences purchasing servers from Pogo > Linux - they handled our image very efficiently. For servers, even Tier-1 Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc... all do Linux pre-installed. As I hinted, at one point starting several years ago, there were as many Tier-1 Servers shipping -- _paid_ ($$$) -- with RHEL Server pre-installed as there were Windows Server. ;) So ... what's your point again? > Nevertheless, in my own experience, I've built systems from scratch > starting with clean drives far more often than not. And Windows Server on bare metal continues to dwindle. Again ... what's your point again? > In any case, I wonder how many newcomers to Linux had their *first* > exposure through the purchase of a new PC with Linux installed rather > than via a live USB session. Actually, nearly all probably had _neither_. They saw someone else's system, and they used it. That was their *first* exposure. Honestly ... You've flopped all over the place and made "assumptions." Meanwhile, those of us dealing with OEMs, users, training, services, etc... see the "real statistics." We see Linux everywhere, and we use VMs, old systems, etc... Case-in-point ... Anyone who is advocating _installing_ Linux either ... A) Is many, many years out-of-date, and/or B) Really into InstallFests and just "installing" Linux I deal with both all-the-time, and the second I a "noob" away from them, it's the _sooner_ they are actually "using" and actually "learning" Linux. Installing Linux is _not_ learning Linux. It's teaching far, far more about the PC than anything, and that is a _mess_. Installing an OS -- let alone a PC OS -- has _no_ business in teaching an OS, honestly. Automation is the only things we teach, because it's more about "system management" -- deployment, provisioning, etc... -- than Linux. That said, on the PC front, I hope Microservers take off, because they should "clean up" the mess that is the x86-based PC. AMD, nVidia and others are trying to set down some "standards" that will drastically improve things. Of course, the few boards in sample I've come across have not been well done ... so far. -- Bryan J Smith - http://www.linkedin.com/in/bjsmith _______________________________________________ lpi-examdev mailing list lpi-examdev@lpi.org http://list.lpi.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lpi-examdev
