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160

Replace FreeDOS with Linux

160 points posted to Linux, Operating Systems by unoengborg 03/08/07

Some Dell systems ship with no OS preinstalled and FreeDOS on separate media.
I doubt that there actually is somebody that uses this. The people who buy these
boxes do so to install Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, or even some old versioin of windows
that no longer is in production, but the most common OS for these boxes, judging from other posts on this site, is most likely Linux.

So, why not drop the FreeDOS disk and replace it with some form of Linux. It doesn't
really matter what distro as long as you tell what kernel it runs and what devices it supports whitout doing any kernel or driver recompilations. Do also provide chip level hardware specifications. E.g. don't say the laptop have wirless ip, say that it have wireless ip using intel ipw2200.

If you can't offer support for Linux just be clear about it. Most people interested in Linux would raise your status to close to hero, only if you provide the necessary information to know if your hardware actually will work with Linux before they buy. Shipping boxes with FreeDOS gives no such information. Naturally I have no objections, if you actually manage to provide good Linux support, at least for the distro you choose to use.

phubert
03/08/07		 Not at all a bad idea...
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