[Leaplist] Laptop without Windows in Orlando

[Bryan J Smith]

On Tue, 2009-07-28 at 17:30 +0000, Teemu Laine wrote: 
> Hi!
> Thank you Steve and Stephen. I read somewhere that the Microsoft tax
> is only about $50-100 but it would indeed be a matter of principle.

One has to be careful when playing the "principle" game.  Because it's
easy to have one principle you focus on, but ignore yet another, very
important one (or two, or three).  I've seen a lot of people burn
themselves with "Anything But Microsoft" (ABM) principles.  I've even
been known to ... gasp ... "defend" (I like to say "explain") Microsoft
on some aspects, even its distribution lock and other considerations.

Heck, I even acquired the new MCITP (replaces the MCSE) on Windows
Server 2008 recently.  I deal with Microsoft regularly.  I even consider
myself a "Microsoft Professional" in many aspects.  I am often tapped
for Windows deployment, provisioning and interoperability.  It happens.
I do it.  I use the opportunities to interject open architectures and
solutions while I'm at it.


On Tue, 2009-07-28 at 09:03 -0400, Stephen Cullum wrote: 
> It is generally hard to find any vendor that sales laptops with Linux 
> pre-installed locally. It is better to go on line and  buy one. These 
> are links to vendors that sale what you want.
> http://system76.com/  , http://www.zareason.com/shop/home.php and 
> http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/ubuntu?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=anavml
> There are others. A google search will find them.

Wow!  Those System76 configurations are very price competitive!

Not only is the 17" with the nVidia GeForce GTX 280M plus 1920x1200 as standard excellent:    
  http://system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=87  

But I'm really now eying the 15.4" with nVidia GeForce Go 260M and
1920x1200 video options as more portable with the same resolution and
not too much reduction in performance:  
  http://system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=88  

They definitely best Dell's pricing on the XPS with 1920x1200 and
similar GPUs.  In fact, Gateway has scaled back its 1920x1200 offerings,
and typically only ships 1440x900 (not even 1680x1050) at 17" to save
costs.  I got lucky in getting my Gateway P-7811FX, which is one of the
very few models they made in 1920x1200 (and a cheap LCD+backlight at
that).


-- 
Bryan J  Smith     Professional, Technical Annoyance 
Linked Profile:   http://www.linkedin.com/in/bjsmith 
---------------------------------------------------- 
      Fission Power:  An Inconvenient Solution       



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