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Re: Linux Laptop (newspaper letter)

__/ [ M ] on Wednesday 03 May 2006 21:36 \__

> William Poaster wrote:
> 
>> It was on Mon, 01 May 2006 13:33:57 +0100 when Roy Schestowitz posted
>> this:
>> 
>> <snipped>
>>  
>>> Dell are rumoured to have plans of launching Linux laptops in France [1].
>>> As for the UK, Novatech sell Intel and AMD laptops without an operating
>>> system [2].
>>> 
>>> [1] http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/
>> 
>> Thanks for the link, Roy. I was considering getting a laptop, but didn't
>> want to buy one with Windows on. I would install SuSE linux on it instead.
>> 
>> It's interesting to note (IMHO) the difference in price of a laptop
>> without Windows, as opposed to one with. For example, this:
>> http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/nbsextra.html?NNB-359
>> 
>> Without any OS = £774.33p
>> 
>> With XP Home = £831.90p
>> 
>> With XP Pro = £867.15p
>> 
>> Price difference:
>> With XP home installed = £57.57p
>> 
>> With XP Pro installed = £92.82p
>> 
>> Also when you look at the desktop models, you see similar.
>> You can be paying just over £100 difference between having no OS & XP Pro
>> pre-installed.
>> 
>> Kind of knocks a hole in the Windows users argument (in another
>> group) that you don't pay for windows in an OEM machine. ;-)
>> 
>> Oh, & you haven't finished there of course. If you want MS Office, it
>> could be another £214. Then you want an AV, which can be as much as £28.
>> So the total difference on a desktop could be as high as £335.54p, & you
>> haven't even bought a monitor yet!
> 
> No need to pay for antivirus, both AVG and Avast are free for personal use,
> and there is little to choose between them and other paid for Antivirus
> software. In many respects they are actually better. Same goes for Anti
> spyware software.
> 
> I have recently seen PC's being sold with Star Office and as you know there
> is also Open Office, so unless you have a particular reason for wanting MS
> Office it is possible to give it a miss :-)
> 
> Now all we have to do is persuade all the OEM's to at least give us the
> choice of giving Windows a miss too :-)
> 
> Hopefully if this Laptop that you guys are talking about is a success then
> may be there will a greater chance of that happening.


Dell are said to consider Linux (pre-installed) laptops in France. Whether it
spreads across the globe, we shall see. They already sell Linux desktops,
servers and they even bundle Mozilla Firefox in the UK.


> I suppose if the Apple OS can be made to work on a PC, then strictly
> speaking the consumer should be given the choice of Windows, Linux, Apple
> OS and may be even some sort of BSD.


Boot Camp < http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp > makes this possible
/already/, but through virtualisation on overpriced hardware. See the
following:

http://handras.hu/?p=185 (click to view full screeshot)

Best wishes,

Roy

-- 
Roy S. Schestowitz      |    "The only source is Open Source"
http://Schestowitz.com  |     GNU/Linux     ¦     PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
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