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Re: Linux Laptop (newspaper letter)

__/ [ ac ] on Thursday 27 April 2006 10:38 \__

> In the UK newspaper The Guardian, in the Technology section (date
> Thursday April 27, 2006) one of the 'Ask Jack' questions which are
> published and answered is about trying to buy a cheap laptop with
> Linux pre installed.
> 
> There is a fairly reasonable answer given.
> 
> http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1761705,00.html

,----[ Quote ]
| Jack Schofield replies: It is hard to buy a notebook PC without an
| operating system or with Linux pre-loaded. You can get them by mail
| order, but even then, they are not necessarily cheaper than Windows
| machines. Manufacturers generally argue it is expensive to obtain drivers
| and test Linux systems, relative to the number of sales, and it increases
| the number of stock-keeping units and other warehousing, distribution
| and advertising costs. There's also support, which can easily cost far
| more than the operating system, and home users are generally unwilling
| to pay the price.
`----

While some of the arguments seem decent on paper, many vendor will offer no
support. Then comes another consideration: why pay for a Microsoft licence
rather than purchase an Open PC (blank hard-drive)?

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/

[2] http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=31300

Best wishes,

Roy

PS - AC, my eSys computer has worked flawlessly since September. Their laptop
offer is similar (cost-wise, even before coupons) to some of the offers from
Dell though.

-- 
Roy S. Schestowitz      |    "In hell, treason is the work of angels"
http://Schestowitz.com  |    SuSE Linux    ¦     PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
  1:25pm  up 3 days 20:22,  12 users,  load average: 0.51, 0.54, 0.51
      http://iuron.com - next generation of search paradigms

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