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

[Matt]

Steve Martindell said:
> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> https://ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

And the REALLY annoying part of all this is that Dell and Gateway and HP
and whoever all get cheap rates for buying those licenses (which I seem to
remember reading that they weren't supposed to do that anymore) where as
if I chose to build and sell a pc, it would cost me a serious amount more
just to put an OEM copy of win2k or xp on the box (in the range of 100 to
150 is what I have found so far) - so yes, the entire thing stinks.
-- 
Matt