Internet and O.E.M (Original Equipment Manufacturers)
With cloud computing making a big impact, I am a believer that all O.E.M computer products should have Internet utilities as a default system even without an Operating System. That is the next best thing that can happen to customer base. Internet is the most widely used utility.
My only reservation is that there should be some protection for vulnerable children.
That protection can be adequately dealt with by a password system when one buys an O.E.M system as a bundled package. Only one user should be allowed the full system access.
There should be a separate O.E.M for children (with protection included by default).
In other words, the user should be able to the browse Internet by default. There are enough small utilities and free software available now, for one of them to be included by default in an O.E.M. System.
The user should also be able to select his or her operating system as a cloud utility or as an independent operating system without having being hooked to a proprietary Operating System by default.
The operating wisdom should be that the customer has a choice.
Of course, to make matters easy proprietary system/s should be available for those who wish to purchase. That is also a freedom of choice.
How one sells the product is not the vendor's preempt but the work of the sales person.
Until such time, all the O.E.M. products should be allowed to boot up with a Flashdrive or micreSD card. They can even sell it with a smart-card option.
Smart-card option
It is an easy alternative.
Developers have already created special microSD for the E-reader Nook Color, that allows one to dual-boot the Nook OS and a specialized version of Android. In other words, just pop one of these cards into the Nook's microSD slot, and presto!
Instant Android.
If the Android environment is not needed any longer, just turning off the Nook, popping out the card, and rebooting will get one to the Nook.
Actually, the card need not be taken out, as one can choose the OS from a boot menu.
That means one is not voiding the warranty.
A very popular Android ROM Card CyanogenMod marketed by N2A (Nook to Android) has stocks of applications that include Amazon Kindle, Angry Birds, and Words with Friends.
One is not locked into reading only Barnes & Noble e-books.
Following is an advertisement selling microSD cards
"Turning your Nook Color into a terrific Android tablet is easy--and legal.
No warranty issues, no changes to your ereader:
It just works.
And we've chosen SanDisk microSD cards:
The tech industry's best storage solution to be sure your tablet works perfectly today and tomorrow".
In that context, Debian's Iceweasel (or even Dillo) should be the one that should be ported with the O.E.M with all the unnecessary cookies removed and probably something similar to Dropbox (or a cloud entity) as an accompaniment with the basic (minimal) kernel.
This is one piece of writing in my next book
My Selection of Linux Utilities that make a Feature Packed Linux Distribution