ago
November 30th, 2007, 12:39 PM
http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/75302
What about having a checkbox for each operating system in order to allow users to select multiple choices? No checkbox = no OS, multiple checkboxes = Multiboot. The conflict resolution dialog notifes about conflicts between OS and other hardware choices.
Select My Operating Systems:
[ _ ] Free DOS (info) [$0]
[ x ] Ubuntu 7.10 (info) [$0]
[ _ ] Windows XP (info) [add $50]
[ x ] Windows Vista Basic (info) [add $50]
[ _ ] Windows Vista Home Premium (info) [add $100]
[ _ ] Windows Vista Ultimate (info) [$150]
[ _ ] Windows Vista Business (info) [$100]
Ubuntu, XP and all other operating systems should be made available on all machines unless there is a fundamental hardware issue that makes a particular OS unsuitable (an issue that cannot be resolved by selecting a different component). Each item should have an info button which opens a brief explanation, a fair comparison table of all operating systems should also be provided. Details such as bootloader choice in multiboot configuration and disk allocation algorithm are left to Dell engineers to have fun with.
Hopefully that will accomodate most requests relating to OS choice while keeping the interface simple and intuitive.
How does that help? In several ways:
* It asks to provide Ubuntu on all offerings
* It asks to give equal preminence to all OSs
* It makes price comparison transparent, so that users are not tricked to believe that Windows is "free since it comes with the PC".
* It makes it clear that today there is not only windows
But so far nothing really new, many other proposals have suggested to add Ubuntu to the list of operating systems to make the OS choice transparent, this just reinforce such claims.
Where this proposal differs is that via a small change in user interface (checkboxes), it allows multiboot, and since it does not cost anything to add Ubuntu in multiboot, even users that want to get Windows have a strong incentive to also install Ubuntu...
What about having a checkbox for each operating system in order to allow users to select multiple choices? No checkbox = no OS, multiple checkboxes = Multiboot. The conflict resolution dialog notifes about conflicts between OS and other hardware choices.
Select My Operating Systems:
[ _ ] Free DOS (info) [$0]
[ x ] Ubuntu 7.10 (info) [$0]
[ _ ] Windows XP (info) [add $50]
[ x ] Windows Vista Basic (info) [add $50]
[ _ ] Windows Vista Home Premium (info) [add $100]
[ _ ] Windows Vista Ultimate (info) [$150]
[ _ ] Windows Vista Business (info) [$100]
Ubuntu, XP and all other operating systems should be made available on all machines unless there is a fundamental hardware issue that makes a particular OS unsuitable (an issue that cannot be resolved by selecting a different component). Each item should have an info button which opens a brief explanation, a fair comparison table of all operating systems should also be provided. Details such as bootloader choice in multiboot configuration and disk allocation algorithm are left to Dell engineers to have fun with.
Hopefully that will accomodate most requests relating to OS choice while keeping the interface simple and intuitive.
How does that help? In several ways:
* It asks to provide Ubuntu on all offerings
* It asks to give equal preminence to all OSs
* It makes price comparison transparent, so that users are not tricked to believe that Windows is "free since it comes with the PC".
* It makes it clear that today there is not only windows
But so far nothing really new, many other proposals have suggested to add Ubuntu to the list of operating systems to make the OS choice transparent, this just reinforce such claims.
Where this proposal differs is that via a small change in user interface (checkboxes), it allows multiboot, and since it does not cost anything to add Ubuntu in multiboot, even users that want to get Windows have a strong incentive to also install Ubuntu...