How to Conquer the World for Linux 16815

I mentioned this in another thread so I'll keep it short. When I bought my Dell laptop 2 weeks ago I could not find another laptop with similar features for anywhere near the price that Dell sold it for. It came with XP-Home preinstalled. I know better but to me XP was essentially free since this deal was better than anything else out there. I don't believe that I would have saved $38 if Dell didn't include XP. The extra profit would have stayed at Dell.

It's my belief that within reason people don't mind paying a little extra for convenience and simplicity. When I bought my car it came with a nice factory CD stereo. It wasn't an option... I had to take the stereo. Technically I could have saved a few dollars by insisting on a car without a stereo and then going to some stereo shop and have them install one for me. If I were still a stereo geek I would do this but the factory stereo works fine and it's not worth the inconvenience to save a few dollars and replace something that works perfectly well.

Windows isn't perfect but it is more than usable for the millions of people who use it daily. Most computer users are not as technical as the average COLA poster. To them it's perceived as a huge benefit to buy a pre-configured computer, plug-it-in and just have it work. All these pre-packaged Windows systems come with all the proper drivers installed so it's simply a matter of plugging in the computer and it's immediately ready for use. For technical people this doesn't sound like much but this is incredibly important for a novice who just bought their first system.

Some percentage of the population will laugh at my "Harmon Kardon factory stereo" and replace it with a rack of kilo-watt amplifiers that drive a custom speaker system with 6-gauge monster cable. Some percentage of computer users will do the software equivalent. But the overall quality of my "factory stereo" is more than adequate for most people and I suspect that the "factory software" is fine for most people too.