"No pre-installled apps"
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@george-k said in "No pre-installled apps":
Just sell a computer with an OS and nothing else.
God, I wish they'd do that.
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The argument would go like what Microsoft claimed when defending itself from anti-trust suits about bundling Internet Explorer with Windows: "It's not an app, it's part of the operating system."
When asked whether Microsoft Corp., which was subject to an epic antitrust case in the 1990s, would be subject to the measures, Cicilline said it would be up to the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission to make that determination.
It appears Rep. Cicilline does not have a good grasp of the effect of his proposal. It's like proposing some new fuel efficiency standard without knowing whether it applies to GM or Toyota.
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@george-k said in "No pre-installled apps":
Rhode Island Democrat
Most people in Rhode Island are still using Windows 3.1.1
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@axtremus said in "No pre-installled apps":
Rep. Cicilline does not have a good grasp of the effect of his proposal. It's like proposing some new fuel efficiency standard without knowing whether it applies to GM or Toyota.
Yep.
If one is invested into the ecosystem of Apple, or Android, or Microsoft, would the device still work without the built-in browser, calendar, etc?
It should.
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If he wants to take this to its logical conclusion, he should prevent them from selling it with an operating system installed, and require that others are made available.
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@george-k said in "No pre-installled apps":
@axtremus said in "No pre-installled apps":
Rep. Cicilline does not have a good grasp of the effect of his proposal. It's like proposing some new fuel efficiency standard without knowing whether it applies to GM or Toyota.
Yep.
If one is invested into the ecosystem of Apple, or Android, or Microsoft, would the device still work without the built-in browser, calendar, etc?
It should.
Ever used brew? Every semi-decent ecosystem will automatically install dependencies and even allow multiple versions of the same app to coexist (to avoid "DLL hell").
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@george-k said in "No pre-installled apps":
@axtremus said in "No pre-installled apps":
Rep. Cicilline does not have a good grasp of the effect of his proposal. It's like proposing some new fuel efficiency standard without knowing whether it applies to GM or Toyota.
Yep.
If one is invested into the ecosystem of Apple, or Android, or Microsoft, would the device still work without the built-in browser, calendar, etc?
It should.
No way to download and install one if no browser.
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@doctor-phibes said in "No pre-installled apps":
If he wants to take this to its logical conclusion, he should prevent them from selling it with an operating system installed, and require that others are made available.
Excellent point.
That's what Linux is all about, right.
(.....BRICK....)
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@klaus said in "No pre-installled apps":
Ever used brew? Every semi-decent ecosystem will automatically install dependencies and even allow multiple versions of the same app to coexist (to avoid "DLL hell").
I use "brew". As far as Unix package management goes, I like it. Let's use it as an example for this discussion.
The first step to install "brew" is to issue this command line in the terminal:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
Right from that very first step, it requires a shell like "bash" and another command line utility like "curl".
With some strict definition, "bash" and "curl" can be considered "applications" rather than "operating system". If the system vendor is not allowed to bundle "bash" and "curl", you will have a very hard time to get to "brew."
I quite believe that there is a reasonable delineation to separate what can be bundled and what cannot be bundled in a way that balances usability and anti-monopoly concerns. The Microsoft anti-trust case teased out many things that can guide us towards that delineation. It does not inspire confidence when a law maker who proposed a new bill to govern bundling has no clue whether that proposal applies to Microsoft, let alone how it applies to Microsoft.
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@axtremus said in "No pre-installled apps":
With some strict definition, "bash" and "curl" can be considered "applications" rather than "operating system".
What definition would that be? A shell to start OS commands has been part of basically every OS in the last 50 years. The ability to download (curl) and install applications is also a core functionality of an OS. Even embedded systems such as routers have those commands preinstalled. Obviously there's no sharp definition of what is core OS functionality and what isn't, but these two are pretty close to "core".