Re: [tlug] Pre-installed linux?

["Lyle H Saxon" <llletters@??>]

On 2/11/07, Godwin Stewart <godwin.stewart@??> wrote:
> ************************************
> *** PLEASE STOP POSTING IN HTML! ***
> ************************************
Okay, I like HTML for everything except this list, but I'll switch
over to plain text nonetheless.

> On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 13:45:24 +0900, "Lyle H Saxon"
> > If you spend around Y15,000, you can get P-IV's running at around
> > 2GHz, some with USB 2.0.
>
> Are these kinds of prices specific to the Japanese market? I ask
> because 15,000 Yen, that's under 100 euros and I wouldn't expect to see
> a used P-IV, any clock frequency, at less than 3 times that price, if at
> all. People tend to hang onto computer equipment longer around here.
> One of my clients, for example, is still using a 10 year-old machine
> with Windows 95 on it, while many places are still using Win98 or, at a
> pinch, Win2K.

They might be peculiar to the Japanese market - I was recently talking
with a man from Holland who was in Tokyo for a few days, and he was
telling me that hardware prices for just about everything - including
prices of new external hard drives - were much higher in Holland than
in Tokyo.

As for the used market - people here generally like to have new
gadgets, from cell phones to computers, features and name/date
quotability are important.  This means there is less competition for
used stuff.  (Not to mention that you have to *pay* about Y5,000 to
throw away a used computer now - just for the box I think - double
that for the monitor?)  Also keep in mind what fuels the flow of used
machines here - the computer leasing business.  Companies that lease
computers to other companies will get back a batch of computers (often
models that were only marketed to companies in the first place, and
not to the general public) that they are unable to re-lease to other
companies (who expect new machines with a new lease), so they sell
them in batches cheaply to companies that then market them in used
computer shops.

Windows 95?  I recently met an individual using W-98 with broadband at
home - they were suitably ashamed of their old system and I was
horrified at the concept of W-98 sitting naked on a home broadband
line.  They said their computer is extremely slow and not working well
- no surprise!

Lyle