[kwlug-disc] netbooks without windows

[Johnny Ferguson]

That's a good link. I'll hang on to it for the future.

For the time being, I'm waiting for Dell to finish up building my 
Inspiron Mini 10. I'm waiting to see what the license for XP says, as I 
hear they've modified it for OEM XP to be closer to the Vista EULA which 
states "if you don't agree, contact your manufacturer for a refund, if 
applicable" or something like that. Basically the provision would let 
them say that their refund policy requires you to return the entire machine.

Naughty, naughty, Microsoft.

It would take a stroke of sheer genius to start a notebook company that 
could compete with the big boys but offer fair options in terms of OS 
choice. System76 (for example) has AMAZING products, but they lack the 
shipping infrastructure to be competitive.

Since I install the flash player and codecs to play MP3's and the like, 
I'd feel like a bit of a hypocrite saying that at all costs my hardware 
must be "open". For the savings, I'm willing to make this small 
sacrafice... Though I'm not happy about it.

On the plus side, this machine has integrated intel graphics, which I 
hear have much better support than nvidia chipsets. My desktop has 
integrated nvidia and I just spent the last 24 hours hacking around to 
get my resolution back to normal because ubuntu suddenly couldn't read 
the EDID properly (in the end, it was a difference of 2 hex digits).

-Johnny

On 06/28/2010 03:23 PM, unsolicited wrote:
> Came across these, FWIW.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NO-OS_and_Open_Source_Laptop_Manufacturers
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_refund
>
> Paul Nijjar wrote, On 06/23/2010 5:04 PM:
>> On Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 02:39:37PM -0400, Johnny F wrote:
>>> Wondering if anyone could make a recommendation on the best place to get
>>> a notebook without windows in Canada. I need the netbook primarily for
>>> my electronics bench (writing code, flashing microcontrollers), and
>>> secondarily as a lightweight laptop for browsing the internet when I
>>> leave home and don't want to carry a 10 pound laptop around (which is
>>> also huge and power hungry).
>>
>> I don't know if this is a recommendation (these seem to be older
>> netboooks with 3-cell batteries, and under your price range) but
>> Canada Computers lists a few:
>> http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=570_28_378&item_id=020521&sid=b2b8tabpfjb9en4hjaqs32l1g5
>>
>>
>> http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=570_28_378&item_id=019015&sid=b2b8tabpfjb9en4hjaqs32l1g5
>>
>>
>> http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=570_630_674&item_id=020647&sid=b2b8tabpfjb9en4hjaqs32l1g5
>>
>>
>>
>> Naturally, stock is bad. I guess Linux really did lose the netbook
>> battle.
>> Tiger Direct also has exactly one listing in its "Linux Based
>> Netbooks" section, too. Sigh.
>> http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=4235&name=Linux-Based&
>>
>>
>> As for Windows netbooks: licences are non-transferrable, as far as I
>> know. If I was able to buy a netbook I would be looking for a
>> Windows-free one as well; I think it is a sensible message to send.
>> - Paul
>>
>
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