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A comment on What Dropbox dropping Linux support says. Parent comment

Re:What Dropbox dropping Linux support says by PostOnce on Tuesday August 28, 2018 @12:15AM (#17856512)
The average user probably wouldn't know the difference, since a computer is a browser and an office suite -- but there's no real incentive to sell anyone Linux? It wouldn't make anyone much more money, so what company would bother?

Thinking out loud, I haven't thoroughly researched my position but it sounds plausible.

edit: the implication being they're just going to use whatever is installed on the laptop that they pick up for $400 at the store, which of course will always be Windows, since Microsoft can afford to make the effort to sell it. Why would any regular person go to the effort of installing another OS for the same functionality?

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Re:What Dropbox dropping Linux support says by hluska on Tuesday August 28, 2018 @12:24AM (#17856535)
What could happen to demand if you dropped $150 from the price of a machine that would serve the needs of those average users?
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Re:What Dropbox dropping Linux support says by belltaco on Tuesday August 28, 2018 @12:43AM (#17856575)
Windows costs the OEM much less, it's almost free when you add in the money they get from bundling software like antivirus trials etc.which they won't get from installing Linux or selling without an OS.

Also their support staff are trained to handle Windows. Adding Linux to the mix will increase costs.

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Re:What Dropbox dropping Linux support says by jarfil on Tuesday August 28, 2018 @01:03AM (#17856630)
What would happen is the Asus Eee, which got such a high rate of returned units from people who didn't understand Linux that it ultimately got canceled.
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Re:What Dropbox dropping Linux support says by meekins on Tuesday August 28, 2018 @09:47AM (#17858750)
I wonder what's the rate with current Chromebooks for example?

The UX of the distro chosen for EEE PCs (unfortunately I don't remember the name anymore) was really strange and something that was alien for users of any mainstream Windows, Linux or Mac desktop. I wonder if it could have succeeded better with something like Xubuntu instead.

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Re:What Dropbox dropping Linux support says by zaarn on Tuesday August 28, 2018 @05:10AM (#17857493)
Most likely, the price would drop no more than 10$. OEMs don't pay much to Microsoft.
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