[ubuntu-uk] pre installed ubuntu laptops?

[alan c]

Andrew Turner wrote:
> 2009/6/9 Rob Beard <rob at esdelle.co.uk>:
>> Another option, not sure if you'd thought of is to have a look at
>> laptops in the right price range and then search online to see if anyone
>> has had any problems with Ubuntu.  I did that when choosing a laptop.  I
>> was going to go for an eiSystem laptop from PC World for about £300 but
>> found it had god awful Linux support so instead I got my little Acer
>> Aspire 2920 (with 12.1" widescreen screen so bigger than a netbook but
>> small enough that it is compact and easy to carry around, and it has a
>> pretty good spec besides).  Only issue is the Windows refund.  I know
>> Acer do offer a Windows refund but it requires sending the laptop to
>> their service centre in Plymouth.  Personally I kept Windows (despite
>> the fact the service centre is about a 40 mile round trip from where I
>> live so I could have dropped it off).
>>
>> Rob
> 
> Dell will refund the cost of Windows without you having to send
> anything off. But I guess the OP was looking for an Ubuntu
> pre-installed machine in order to send a message to the manufacture
> showing that there is a demand for such a thing.

It is a situation in the shallow end of a probably a much deeper
populist swing away from Windows. The customer is a friend of an
elderly non technical friend of mine. My friend found that their
existing old laptop was grinding to a halt with XP, was happy to try
Ubuntu in earnest.

This was a remarkable success, and Ubuntu 8.04.2 ran the machine
reasonably fast. It looked like a different machine. A very great
difference from the XP experience which was previously moving the
person helplessly towards a purchase of a completely new laptop.

Seeing the newfound joy of a reincarnated laptop, a friend of the
friend found that their own fear of failure with Windows was not valid
with Ubuntu, so that friend is now happily seeking to purchase their
own and very first computer - laptop.

However, it has to be Ubuntu, not Windows.
I would gladly install Ubuntu on a new laptop for the friend as long
as I could be sure that it would all work after the money was spent.

Although there is a strong resistance to paying for a useless Windows
tax, and also there is an attraction in supporting  the good guys, the
main factor is simply lack of information about hardware and its
compatibility with - say - ubuntu 9.04. So just nakedness in a laptop
is not sufficient for my needs here.
-- 
alan cocks
Ubuntu user #10391
Linux user #360648