On Thursday 04 November 2004 8:57 am, tom potts wrote:
Anyone know where I might be able to purchase a new laptop/notebook with Linux installed so M$ get none of my money? Preferably from this little backwater of a country but EU would do at a push Tom
I'll see what I can come up with. Last time I looked we could supply only unbranded OEM laptops with no Microsoft Operating system. I wouldn't recommend purchasing one of those as they aren't particularly nice machines.
That said I know that HP have recently started selling a Linux Laptop and I think there may be an IBM thinkpad as well.
Don't expect to save much money though. Even though an OEM copy of XP Pro retails at £75 or so. I have heard rumours that large scale manufacturers like Dell, HP etc get it for A LOT less than that (I have heard stories of £15 when purchased without installation media) it's this massive discount that MS used as leverage to "convince" manufacturers to put a copy in every box. MS have been accused of telling manufacturers that the discount only applies if EVERY machine leaves with a MS operating system.
Later this was changed (after anti-trust threats) to MS saying that every computer should leave with some preinstalled OS.
This is why nobody should ever buy boxed Microsoft Operating Systems, they are worthless because it's almost impossible to buy a "clean" computer to install them on. Case in point, I wanted a new laptop earlier in the year settled on a Thinkpad, however despite the fact that I own a boxed and licensed copy of Windows 2000 I was forced into purchasing Windows XP as part of my chosen laptop's package.
Got into a bit of a rant there :-) I will check later today and see what we can get.
W