[NTLUG:Discuss] Re: Dell nightmare <or> PC w/o OS

[Steve Martindell]

discuss-request at ntlug.org wrote:

> Date: 30 Oct 2003 11:21:17 -0600
> From: Wayne Dahl <w.dahl4 at verizon.net>
> To: NTLUG <discuss at ntlug.org>
> Subject: Re: [NTLUG:Discuss] Dell nightmare
>
> On Tue, 2003-10-28 at 09:24, jubal12 at juno.com wrote:
> > How about this one?  Not as bad as Dell, but then I asked questions
> > before I bought it.
> >
> > I walked into a Gateway store about a month or so ago because I had heard
> > that they would, like Burger King, build a desk top my way.  I was told
> > in no uncertain terms that they WOULD put Windoze XP on it and I WOULD
> > pay for it whether it was what I wanted or not.
> >
> > I did, however, find out that MicroCenter in Richardson did have some
> > systems they would sell piecemeal without an OS.  This seemed like a good
> > situation, and they were certainly in the running, but I wound up buying
> > from IMS in Carrollton because they were a few dollars cheaper.  They
> > wouldn't put Linux on it, but did sell it to me without an OS (and
> > without charging me for one).  I am still happy with computer itself.  My
>

I got the same answer from Gateway last week: you can't buy the
hardware w/o also buying winblows OS, even though I would immediately
wipe the disk and install Linux.
Somehow, microsoft forcing theses companies to bundle
their OS with the hardware smacks of an anti trust violation,
along the lines of "no tieing contracts".

---

MicroCenter does sell the "barebones" PC's w/o the OS,
but at ~$380 it also doesn't come with a hard drive, CRrom
or floppy drive.

For a complete box w/o OS I like:

http://laboratorycomputers.com/index.html

you can get a complete 2.4GHz Celeron w/ no OS,
Redhat9, or Mandrake8.1 preinstalled at no extra cost
for about the same price as the MicroCenter barebones.

They will install XP home/XP pro at an extra cost of
$99/$155.
Then you can add office XP for $199-$299

Me, I'm having great luck w/ free demo StarOffice7.
All the incompatibilities that I have seen in the past
have been corrected.  I will purchase this when the
demo runs out in a month.

     -steve