[ubuntu-uk] Windows Free Laptops

[Bruce Beardall]

I was just looking at the HDD version, thanks for that, Adam.

Cheers

Bruce


On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 11:17 AM, Adam Bagnall <bagnaj97 at googlemail.com>wrote:

> Rob Beard wrote:
> > Dale Clarke wrote:
> >
> >> The Problem is that Tesco tried to get on the Acer Aspire One Linux
> >> bandwagon selling it at £170, but have had huge returns (see Acer Forum)
> >> as people have not liked the linux frontend. This in my opinion will
> >> leave a sour taste in Tesco's mind towards Linux and can be put squarely
> >> in Acer's backyard as they do not provide enough information about the
> >> product and have done it with a very beta type setup.
> >>
> >>     /After writing the above I thought I would ring our local Tesco this
> >>     morning to check and their response was that they have sold all
> >>     theirs within 1 days last Monday and have had no returns, so maybe
> >>     sold to Linux user's, but the person said that as like Argos they
> >>     cannot provide software or hardware support so just do refunds,
> >>     slightly different if you went to PC World etc.../
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> > That's a bit disappointing.  I can't help but think that some people buy
> > these things because they're cheap and see having a laptop as being
> > cool.  I know a few people who have no use for a laptop and bought the
> > cheapest laptop possible when they could have bought a much better spec
> > desktop for the same money.  Then there's also the problem that lots of
> > people perceive computer = Windows.
> >
> >
> >> Microsoft were clever in not providing any CD based software due to the
> >> amount of people asking for refunds, as they did not want the Oem.
> >> Especially with early Vista users and customers returning to XP, now you
> >> cannot get a refund as you cannot prove you have not run the software.
> >>
> >
> > Yep, plus there's the fact that if a hard disk dies and the customer
> > doesn't make a set of recovery discs they'd have to fork out for another
> > Windows licence (or badger the manufacturer for discs).  I know someone
> > who's been caught out on this.
> >
> >
> >> There should be and always be a refund slip in every computer in which
> >> you can get a refund on the Oem if you do not require it, this way
> >> people would realise that they are paying for the software and that it
> >> does not come free with the computer, as it was found out in a survey in
> >> Computer magazine that people perceived.
> >>
> >
> > I could see this working as long as the customer was required to
> > Activate Windows.  By default Windows generally comes pre-activated when
> > it's preinstalled.  If however it wasn't activated and the customer had
> > to do this, then the customer could maybe choose not to Activate Windows
> > and request a refund.  Otherwise what's stopping them asking for a
> > refund and continuing to use Windows.
> >
> >
> >> I personally now run Ubuntu 8.10 on my One with adjustments and it is
> >> now a great package, especially with SSH now being a standard kernel
> >> addition.
> >>
> >>
> >
> > Cool.  I'm really tempted to pickup an Aspire One.  I'm in the market
> > for a new laptop (my Thinkpad is just getting too old and slow now even
> > with Ubuntu Lite).  Not sure if I should stump up £170 for an Aspire One
> > or pay the extra for a cheap Dual Core laptop.
> >
> > Rob
> >
> >
> >
> If you're thinking of getting the aspire one I'd definitely save the
> extra for the normal HDD version. I'm all for solid state, even if it's
> only 8gb, but the ssd in my aspire one is painfully slow. Even doing
> fairly trivial things sometimes causes the ssd activity light to just
> stay on solidly and the laptop freezes for a few seconds (and it's not
> swapping. 0k swap used). Updates on it are a nightmare because they take
> so long and pretty much render it unusable until they're complete.
>
> Adam
>
> --
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>
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