I read an article in Yahoo News today from MacCentral that was about a MacMini clone (called the MiniPC) by the Taiwanese computer manufacturer AOpen. At first I thought it was just anther rip off of a good idea by Apple (which it is, the new machine is almost identical to the MacMini in both spec and appearance) but something else caught my eye, honest and transparent pricing!

There are two versions of this tiny PC which have identical hardware but a dramatic difference in price, a Linux version ($399) and a WinXP version ($499). This gives consumers and accurate idea of how much of the price of their PC goes to Microsoft (20% in this case).

In my experience, your average consumer just assumes that Windows ‘comes free’ with their computer because many manufacturers will not sell you a machine without Windows (I have personal experience of both Dell and Fujitsu-Siemens refusing to sell me a PC without Windows). With pricing like that of the new MiniPC that illusion will be shattered and when you combine that with Microsoft’s efforts to make life hard for those using pirated versions of Windows, I think there will be many more people pushed away from Windows.

Hopefully this is the start of a bright new future rather than just a blip on the radar. If other manufacturers start to follow suit ordinary people will, for the first time, start to genuinely consider Linux as a real alternative to Windows.