Re: ready to use debian or ubuntu laptop reccomendations?
On Wednesday 01 March 2006 22:37, Andrew Cady wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 01, 2006 at 07:29:15PM -0800, Paul Johnson wrote:
> > On Wednesday 01 March 2006 19:24, Andrew Cady wrote:
> > > On Wed, Mar 01, 2006 at 05:56:05PM -0800, Paul Johnson wrote:
> > > > On Wednesday 01 March 2006 13:25, Star King of the Grape Trees
wrote:
> > > > > Windows is very expensive *UNLESS* you get some sort of
> > > > > volume discount or you purchase it with your computer. I
> > > > > have heard of places where windows cost $30 AUD or less, due
> > > > > to these deals with MS.
> > > >
> > > > Microsoft's OEM list price for Windows XP Pro is US$135.00
> > > > right now, generally speaking, subtract that amount for the
> > > > fair market cost of the hardware without Windows.
> > >
> > > Dell is not paying $135 for a copy of Windows.
> >
> > Are you sure? Look how they cut corners on hardware right up
> > through the midrange.
>
> Dell has immense negotiating power. We can't know what exactly they
> do pay for Windows, or for an Intel CPU, but it's certainly going to
> be less than anyone else.
>
> (If you're thinking that just because Dell can't switch to Linux they
> have no power, consider that they *could* start shipping PCs with
> Firefox, or servers optionally with Linux, or PCs without OSes).
I think it's specifically in the licensing agreement with Microsoft that
they can't sell a PC without an OS. They were for a while, and MS
jumped on them, so they started shipping them with unformatted drives
and FreeDOS on a CD that came with the computer. Slight technicality,
but an entertaining one. It made several stories on RumorDot -- er,
Slashdot.
Hal
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