Little post script
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| tadelste Sep 19, 2005 12:28 PM EDT |
OK. I heard that some of the name brand manufacturers say that they don't see any demand for Linux laptops (or desktops). They call this the "take rate". When I see this comment, I respond with "you don't know how to sell it, it's not that it won't sell. In fact, you go out of your way not to sell it." Dell discontinued selling Laptops with Red Hat on them back in 2000 and they had a decent take rate. That came from the horse's mouth. |
| hkwint Sep 19, 2005 1:15 PM EDT |
Coincidentially, I was researching exactly the same. Please look at my reaction at http://lxer.com/module/forums/t/18170/ of sep 19 2005, where I mentioned three online stores in the US that sell the brand Sabio, which offers amongst others (almost) exactly same laptop as the Dell latitude 110L, and with two years less warranty even cheaper. By the way: I started an action to see if you can get restitution from MS (Netherlands) if you buy a brand new laptop and return the WinXP cd unused, let your HD be wiped by MS, and let the MS-WinXP license sticker be removed. Of course I know this is not possible, but I should get it written from MS. After that I hope to start writing some Dutch Competition Authority/Consumer TV-programs, Consumer organisation and maybe some political parties too, asking them if it's normal 99% of the laptops in NL come with WinXP, but you're unable to get restitution if you don't use it. I think this is 'coupled sale', and in the EU, it's maybe forbidden to do so, though the law is unclear about it, since it's to old to regard software (it doesn't mention software as being a product). Anyway, going to let everybody know what will happen, if I get reactions at all. First of all: Tomorrow a letter with recorded delivery will go to MS (they bounce my e-mail saying mcchol.microsoft.com was not found, even though I use hotmail, and the "delivery failed" notification is placed in the 'unwanted mail'folder by hotmail) |
| tadelste Sep 19, 2005 1:49 PM EDT |
hkwint's post from "Latest Dell laptop runs on Mandriva Linux" Very interesting: I just found out, following some links provided by cyber_rigger, the Dell-latitudes comes from a Taiwanese company, named Quanta. At http://www.avadirect.com , you can buy customised Quanta-laptops (that's true: A Dell laptop in the US without Windows and Dell-sticker!). They're called Sabio and not Dell, but who cares? Looking at the French Dell-laptop, I identified the left/upmost laptop as probably being the same as the Dell latitude 110L. So I started configuring it in exactly the same way as the French Manriva Dell+Linux offer, even including 3 years warranty. However, with the Sabio, I was unable to select plain DDR, so I had to order DDR2. The Sabio came to a total of $962.58 (E 792), including shipping and VAT. The Dell Latitude 110L came to a total of E 759 ($921). I also found some other US-stores selling the sabio-brand, most promising were http://www.asimobile.com (Possible to configure without OS) http://www.powernotebooks.com (Possible to configure without OS, think it's the Crown 17:6 Force, with $892 even cheaper then the Latitude 110L, incl. shipping, but only 1 year warranty) Almost started thinking, if somebody puts a Dell sticker on it, nobody would notice... |
| ralph Sep 19, 2005 10:32 PM EDT |
I notice that most of my ThinkPads are made in Mexico, and not the far east. And, I remember reading disparaging remarks about an oddball series from IBM that were outsourced to a Taiwanese vendor. So, I think IBM may have mostly used their own supply chain. BTW, I don't say the above to put down Taiwanese producers in general. I think the complaint was about that one line of thinkpad, (1400 series) and not about Taiwanese producers as a whole. |
| tadelste Sep 20, 2005 5:15 AM EDT |
Your thinkpads pre-date the change to Quanta. |
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