Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2001 17:31:49 -0700 (PDT) From: Jamie Bowden <ragnar@sysabend.org> To: Bill Moran <wmoran@iowna.com> Cc: Flemming Froekjaer <flemming@froekjaer.org>, mobile@freebsd.org, questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Laptop without Windows Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10106051729370.7646-100000@moo.sysabend.org> In-Reply-To: <3B1D5F9D.A3B81F5D@iowna.com>
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On Tue, 5 Jun 2001, Bill Moran wrote: :Flemming Froekjaer wrote: :> :> I was looking at buying a Dell Inspiron 8000, but there was no option to :> buy it without a windows os. :> So i called them instead and explained that I wanted to use the laptop :> with FreeBSD. They said that would be ok, but i would have to pay the :> same price, as with the OS. :> Is that normal? :> I know Microsoft is not giving DELL free OS licenses, and I don't want :> to support MS by buying there OS, when I'm not going to use it. : :As others have stated ... it's all too common. :However, there was an instance of a very principal driven fellow who :purchased a laptop (with windows preinstalled) and then proceeded to :format the HDD without ever booting the system. Because of the specifics :of the license agreement, he was able to get a refund on the price of :the windows license (since he'd never used it) :He only accomplished this after a great deal of fighting, but it can be :done. I don't remember where, but the story (sort of a HOW-TO for :putting it back in M$ face) is posted on the Internet somewhere. Do some :searching if you feel like fighting for the cause on this one. :If enough people fought over it, maybe companies like Dell would start :offering alternate OSes on laptops, or laptops without OSes. You can alternately just say No when you are asked if you agree to the license terms the first time you start the machine. Dell can't stop shipping Windows, MS will not only up the price, they have threatened resellers with refusing them availability at all. MS has a monopoly, they have abused this power and been convicted, nothing will be done about it, get used to it. Jamie Bowden -- "It was half way to Rivendell when the drugs began to take hold" Hunter S Tolkien "Fear and Loathing in Barad Dur" Iain Bowen <alaric@alaric.org.uk> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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