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From http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/doc/2006-11-20-flossimpact.pdf:

The bundling of hardware and software (maintained through pressure on OEM suppliers) and the constraints of legacy platforms and applications suffice to maintain a monopolistic situation on operating systems software for personal computers, except where strong policies of escaping this situation are put in place. This is the case despite true breakthroughs such as the Ubuntu distribution that have made GNU/Linux easier to install on a machine, in practice, than Windows.

There’s no mention of whether they’re refering to Ubiquity or debian-installer, but at least the Enquirer gave me a laugh by referring to Open Source as Open Sauce

One Response to “EU Study calls Ubuntu installer a “true breakthrough””

1. Nathan DBB Says:
   January 20th, 2007 at 9:45 am

   This study kicks the but of MS’s “Get the FUD” website that features bought-and-paid white papers about how Linux will cost you more. Some selections:

   MS used SCO (now Novell/SUSE) to try to get a patent fee out of every copy of Linux becuse companies build their products with GNU/Linux and not MS/WinCE.

   Page 106:
   Across all high ICT intensity sectors surveyed, 68% of firms have incorporated FLOSS software in their own software products and services.

   If the EU decides to act on the last bullet point here, we may have a shot a bug #1.

   Page 12:
   Policy strategies focus mainly on correcting current policies and practices that implicitly
   or explicitly favour proprietary software:
   o Avoid penalising FLOSS in innovation and R&D incentives, public R&D funding
   and public software procurement that is currently often anti-competitive
   o Avoid lifelong vendor lock-in in educational systems by teaching students skills,
   not specific applications; encourage participation in FLOSS-like communities
   o Explore how unbundling between hardware and software can lead to a more
   competitive market and ease forms of innovation that are not favoured by vertical
   integration.

   Saddly, the report does not attack the attempts to make software patentable head-on.

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