Re: [tlug] linux netbooks?

[nigel barker <tech@example.com>]

Thanks for the replies, and for pointing me back to Dell, whose netbook 
wasn't ready when I last enquired.
It seems it has to be them or buy overseas.

I refuse to pay the MS tax (no matter how cheap) and add numbers to 
their sales, especially on multiple orders.  I had hoped there might be 
some enlightened PC dealer in Tokyo who had managed to escape the MS 
blockade that the rest of the country suffers. Strangely, pc-k can offer 
me the eee desktop with linux (or was it msi wind desktop - I forget), 
but not the netbook!

I don't care about the crappy distros on the aspire one and eee, since I 
will replace them with Debian anyway. In fact I already have Debian 
running nicely on a wind and an aspire one, which is why I'm ready to 
make an order.

Anyway, I'll place an order for a Dell and see how it is.

thanks

nigel

Francois Cartegnie wrote:
> Le samedi 1 novembre 2008, Scott Robbins a écrit :
>   
> > The short answer (which I should have given at the beginning) is that in
> > the US at least, one is usually better off buying the Windows version.
> > Apparently, in an effort to compete, bully, or whatever, the MS O/S cost
> > is minimal.  I suspect that if I did get into the fight to have the MS
> > tax refunded, it would only come to $15-$20 USD.
> >     
>
> As the price is not written before the buy, a refund through court would get 
> you the OEM box retail price.  If you go through them, they'll want to pay a 
> ridiculous price to avoid a refund. That's why Microsoft forces OEM retailers 
> (through oem retail programs) to never mention any software price. No price, 
> no refund. If most of people knew the real price before buying, they would 
> reconsider their buy.
> Then regarding Asus eee and it's other clones: Xandros doesn't provide their 
> Linux for free ! If the XP version is 40USD more, then it's 40USD more than 
> Xandros, which ends up with a 40~80USD XP.
>
> AFAIK, only notebooks hardware shipped from HP with FreeDos is really 0 cost,
> but you'll never get the same hardware config as the windows ones, because you 
> would be able to guess the real price of windows...
>
> That's why refund fights aims to get price first, and the possibility to buy 
> hardware, just hardware. ~~> racketware.info
>
> If you want an eee right now, consider buying from US or Europe. Linux eees 
> (black ones) are cheap, and japan yen is really strong these days.
>
>