h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Traveller in Time planning to buy an XP
"You do have to be quite convincing to get a clean system (no OS). And the question remains if it ends up cheaper then an OEM installed ."

A comment.

And I haven't even finished the article...



You're absolutely right. It's almost impossible to buy a laptop computer without an OS pre-installed, with or without superflous code

It's very easy to assemble a quality computer system from components, but notebooks aren't normally a DIY project

Dell, meanwhile, is coming along nicely...

http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/03/28/HNdellpromiseslinux_1.html

Traveller in Time not searching for a laptop
"I have heard that before . . . was it not SUSE ?

They are going to preinstall it like the Redmond products probably including the same crapware.

What I aim for is buying a base line desktop system, just all ordinary components. The preinstalled version cost less then the sum of the components, can I have it without preinstalled ?

Assembling a system from components is not a bad option but you end up way more expensive then selecting a bulk assembled system. "

I confess to never having purchased a pre-assembled PC


With the exception of my first computer -- an Apple IIc clone -- I've always done my own wrenching..

Is it really 'way more expensive' to DIY?

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/technology-blog/2007/04/craplets_backlash_rising.html
Posted for reference

The reason they won't sell you a system without the crapware is simple... They get paid to put it on there, and that subsidises the price of the computer. That's why they charge more for a bare machine than they do for one loaded down with Windoze and crapware.

I'm intrigued that Dell are going to ship machines with Ubuntu Feisty Fawn as a zero-cost OS option, while still paying some money for it to support future development. Kewl.