I want to use Linux. I want to pay for my free beer.

Another retarded question on Slashdot.

Why should I buy a PC preloaded with Linux?' They are more expensive, and it's not hard just to reformat the PC with Linux. I hate paying the Microsoft Tax as much as anybody else, but if paying that 'tax' allows companies to reduce my price by bundling with my PC products that I will never use, why wouldn't I just buy a Windows-loaded PC and reformat?

How exactly is it a Microsoft Tax if it makes the damn thing cheaper? Just because Dell has figured out how to combine Windows and pre-installed software to make their end product cheaper, doesn't mean it's not going to happen to Linux someday. If there were only any 3rd party software that someone wanted to run on Linux, then I'm sure Dell would be quite happy to ship that crapware along with a pre-installed Linux if it lowered the number on their price tags.

Besides, that's like saying you're going to buy an unlocked phone for $400 more, just for the principle, and then use it for 2 years on AT&T anyways.

Which makes me realize, the only thing Linux has got going for it is that it's so hard to actually ship any software on it that no crapware developer in their right mind would try to build any closed-source consumer desktop product for Linux. Maybe that was Linux's stupid goal all along. To make a platform that is such a constant moving target that it naturally evades crapware. Oh and BTW, doesn't matter if that also happens to prevent any useful software from being developed. It's still worth it so that I can have my machine with a pristine OS and transparent terminals that still can't print my digital photos.