On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 10:19 AM, Nagarjuna G nagarjun@gnu.org.in wrote:
btw, we buy lots of laptops and desktops at our office without OS (freeDOS) from companies such as Dell, HCL, HP, Cannoi, ...
If there is a buyer there will be a seller.
Absolutely! but .... Institutional/Corporate/Enterprise purchasers have this clout.
Perhaps the ELCOT (TN) model [1] initiated by the then head, Uma Shankar in 2008. From what I recall every major brand wanted to have their "solution" in the program that met ELCOT's specs (FOSS).
A similar model could work if some institution(s) step forward and starts such a program for taking individual orders and negotiate with the major brands.
[1] Students in TN could buy a laptop for about 30K (IIRC) [all devices were supposed to work with Linux (Ubuntu and openSUSE were the distros).
-- Arun Khan