[Gllug] EU patents

[Will Napier]

Fantastic and specific proposal to have a law making illegal the 
supplying of a system with a preinstalled OS. However my novice 
experience of trying to install mandrake 9.1 and get all my gear to work 
makes me feel that linux has a way to go before it is truly accesible to 
people who are less enthusiastic than I am.

Christopher Hunter wrote:
> On Monday 30 Jun 2003 11:48 pm, Alain Williams wrote:
> 
>>Quite.
>>
>>Can we have a volunteer (or a small group) to be a 'lead' on this ?
>>Rather than all of us working out the arguments, finding the nice examples,
>>seeking out who we should talk to, draft individual letters to MPs/...,
>>we need a small committee to coordinate.
>>
>>The rest of us can then follow: devote whatever time we feel we can afford
>>...
>>
>>Volunteers ?
> 
> 
> Despite my gloomy outlook, I'm perfectly willing to get involved - it's just 
> that I'm probably more realistic about the chances of successful lobbying 
> than you are.....  Been there, tried that, found it to be largely a waste of 
> time and energy!  I've tried "tilting at windmills" many times in the past, 
> and have the scars (of all sorts) to show for it.
> 
> You have to remember - there are too many "vested interests" involved.  
> Despite their relatively small size, M$ have virtually unlimited funds at 
> their disposal, and are deeply entrenched in Governments all over the planet.
> 
> All the "advocacy" projects will make no difference as long as the mass market 
> home and business computer vendors only supply M$ products....  A really 
> useful EU Law would be to make it illegal to supply a computer with a 
> pre-installed operating system, and would require the buyer to purchase their 
> OS separately, and install it themselves!
> 
> It's not that there's no hope - it's just that the OS brigade haven't got 
> their act together - perhaps WE need 50000 Marketing people!
> 
> Count me in - I'll help if I can
> 
> Chris
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 


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