Lately, I’ve been observing that a lot of brand new laptops being sold in stores don’t have a proper operating pre-installed. Most of the time, you’d see FreeDOS on the specs sheet along with the uber-cheap price tag.
You don’t even see Linux or Ubuntu being offered considering that they’re also free and they’re a fully functional OS already. Last time I remember, only Xandros was really the only one marketed before during the first years of the Asus EeePC.
I guess, because of competition between local laptop brands and the international brands as well as the popularity of low cost netbooks, there’s pressure to get the prices of regular laptops down.
- Ubuntu is technically an option but would be hard to sell to regular folks. FreeDOS is easier — they can always offer the Release Candidate of Windows 7 for free and buyers would think they’ve got a bargain.
- Windows Vista doesn’t perform well on low-end laptops so the additional cost of pre-installing the OS does not add value to the package.
- With Windows 7 formally introduced to the public, the cost contribution of the OS to the whole laptop’s price has gone up from around 15% to as much as 25%. By excluding the OS, a lot of buyers will think the unit is cheap and that eventually encourages them to buy.
- A huge percentage of the buying population still go for bootleg copies of their favorite OS. I think more people would buy Macbooks if they were priced 20% lower and had no OS pre-installed. A number of them would just get the Php100 copy of Snow Leopard in Greenhills.
Personally, I’d go for FreeDOS whenever I buy a unit. I have dozens of legit Ubuntu, XP, Vista and Windows 7 licences lying around to use anytime. So, what do you think — is FreeDOS good or bad for the buying market?
I’d rather have freeDOS than Windows so that I don’t have to pay for M$ tax because I’ll install Linux anyway.
Twitter: ramfree17
says:
I think most are missing the point of the last question in the post. Any non-proprietary OS will give the benefit of a reduction in the total price. The question is more of is FreeDOS beneficial as the starting operating system of a new laptop? If your answer is ‘yes because I’ll immediately install [insert another free OS] over it anyway’ means that getting FreeDOS is tantamount to not getting any OS is just pure marketing BS. Not all users are techie enough to install a new OS. My wife, my parents, heck even half of my friends wouldn’t know.
ciao!
Sana nag-effort man lang sila na iinstall yung Ubuntu since it is FREE! Hayz, marketing strategy nga naman, they would put something unusable (FreeDOS) para maibenta nila yung OS (XP, Vista, Windows 7, etc.).. Kawawa yung mga hindi techie kasi maiisip nila no choice sila when in fact, MERON!
Twitter: simplynice93
says:
FreeDOS is ok for us (techs) since we can install any OS we want (Win XP/Win 7/Linux). It’s good that some shops give us this affordable alternatives.
i agree with Erin. not all potential laptop buyers are techie enough to install an OS. i guess some of their basic concerns are the presence of MS office for basic word processing, spreedsheet and the like; an app for video viewing, an app for sound-tripping; and of course surfing the net and chatting. and just like what RJ said there are free OS available so why not install them, and there are also open sourced MS office equivalent(i guess it’s OPENOFFICE) which they may install just to lessen the price and sweeten the deal to potential buyers.
same with carl. i’d go for jolicloud if there’s no pre-installed OS on my low-end netbook.
Just like regular customers with limited knowledge on computers, I’d go for pre-installed OS even if it will cost a little more. I even look for a laptop with easy recovery option.
i don’t know all these OS. What I know is MSDOS and pirated Windows XP. lol
every time you buy a new laptop w/ legit preinstalled OS, it also comes with recovery discs, usually 2 dvd’s. keep them just in case you messed up or want to re-format your laptop, and because it has the right OS and complete drivers for your laptop. worry free.
I like the idea of having free dos on the market, it lower down the cost of the system but as you have said they could use free linux distro instead.
One downside of having free os is that you can’t test the system functionality unless you bring it home and install an OS.
The problem with FreeDOS is it isn’t useful in a sense a newly bought laptop that can connect to the net or write documents already.
Replace FreeDOS with GNU/Linux (recommending LinuxMint or Ubuntu) or the upcoming Chrome OS would make it a lot more useful than getting a DOS prompt with not even a simple browser.
Recovery discs isn’t the way to go since despite having compatible drivers pre-installed in the image, they also carry a lot of bloat. Better still to just take time installing an OS from the start, adding the drivers and basic apps then finally imaging the OS partition to be stored as your custom recovery discs.
i have been using Ubuntu and Mint for quite sometime now (siguro mga 3 years na), naabutan ko na yung release na wala pang mobile internet then hanggang sa nagkaroon. the linux os works fine at nasanay na din akong mawalay sa Windows except nung nagbalik Ragnarok ako na naginstall ako ng WIne to run the program
try ko itong freeDOS
What would be the price of a new core i5/i7 laptop with FreeDos?
,im planning to buy a new laptop, what do you guys think freeDOS or w/OS na? Kung freeDOS where can I buy a legit o original copy ng Ubunda at Linux? Then if I choose freeDOS do I need to buy ba a CD ng drivers ng laptop?
,”Ubuntu” hehe..^ ^
,bkt ang mura ng msi i7 s asianic? P10,900? Bkt bkt bkt?very very confused?
@Eiji baka down payment lang yun hihihihi
What an epic put up – in reality vital! A improbable deal appreciated!
I’d prefer FreeDOS over a preloaded Windblows on a new laptop. Linux has always been my go-to OS and I’ve already moved on from Ubuntu as it’s too bloated and I hated Unity. Try PCLinuxOS and you’ll see the difference. You can download the full-blown KDE’s or XFCE’s but for those experienced users you can download mini versions and add your own applications that are all available on Synaptic.