[wellylug] Linux-only laptops?

[Daniel Reurich]

On Wed, 2010-05-26 at 10:07 +1200, Donald Rogers wrote:
> Colin Templeman wrote:
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > Hash: RIPEMD160
> >
> > on 24/05/2010 11:06 Donald Rogers said:
> >
> >   
> >> In January 2009 I had a go at finding a suitable laptop to buy for which
> >> I did not have to pay the Microsoft extortion
> > If the direct approach fails, try option 2: get a refund on the Windows licence
> > - - have a google about on this topic.
> >
> > Quite a few successes been had in the UK and elsewhere with various companies
> > (e.g. Dell and Asus).  Common elements of success appears to be getting the
> > "right person" and being polite but persistent.
> >
> > Have a look here in the first instance:
> > http://www.linux.com/archive/articles/59381
> >   
> Thanks for the link. I have read similar ones in the past. NZ must be 
> about the hardest country in the world in which to get a laptop without 
> MSWin on it or to get a refund of the MS extortion. When I asked one of 
> the retailers about a refund he said that I would get only $15. At that 
> point I left in disgust.
> 
> Has anyone had any experience of importing a laptop from Australia or 
> elsewhere? There are heaps of outlets in USA and UK, and a few in Oz, 
> offering Linux or bare bones laptops. AFAIK buying a bare bones desktop 
> in NZ is not a problem. I bought mine from Quay Computers in 2004.
> 
> Donald

I've made several attempts at increasing the availability and options in
this arena, but the upstream suppliers are slow to move.  It appears
that the OEM's get special pricing from Microsoft for preinstalled
systems, and it seems to hard for them to pull their products of the
assembly line before the MS sticker is put on, and install a clean
harddrive instead of the encumbered one.

I thought that in the age of computer control and robotics, the assembly
lines would be smart enough to handle this.

My experience has been that it is largely the cheap knockoff badly
designed products from manufacturers that haven't got a market share
that are sometimes made available without the preinstalled and bundled
OS because even Microsoft won't bother to sign them up to an OEM
agreement.

It'll a cold day in Hell when Microsft releases it's icy grip on the OEM
manufacturers and allow alternative OS's to share the same product
lines.