> Besides, is it not > within the rights of a manufacturer to limit the possibile > configurations to ease in them providing the support that their > customers will demand on the phone?
It is unquestionably within the rights of the manufacturer to limit your ability to freely use their hardware just as much as it is within the rights for software developers to limit your ability to freely use their software. All I was saying is that it is not very much in the spirit of free software, which is what this club is all about. HP shouldn't make it impossible for you to change the hardware of your system without you having to mod the BIOS which can be very risky. If they're worried about you installing an adapter that isn't compatible, they can deny customer service on networking problems for people who have installed non-HP-friendly adapters. At least then if you wanted to upgrade, you could install a newer HP-friendly adapter instead of being limited to the hardware that was around when your laptop was manufactured. -Matt > Matt Deckard wrote: > > >Perhaps, but how can any lovers of free software buy an HP Laptop, whose > >BIOS prevents you from booting your computer if you have any network > >adapter not on their whitelist? > > > >It might not exactly be a free software issue, but I think it > goes against > >the same general principle of freedom (free hardware, perhaps?) You can > >find out more about this by doing a Google search for something like > >"laptop bios whitelist". > > > >-Matt > > > >-----Original Message----- > >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of > >Benjamin Story > >Sent: Sunday, April 17, 2005 8:11 PM > >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Subject: [fsck] Re: Laptops > > > > > >HP Will sell you a laptop without Windows. It will instead be preloaded > >with Novell Linux (aka SuSe). > >Chris Miller wrote: > > > > > > > >>I also may be looking for a laptop soon. Does anyone know of a > >>manufacturer that sells them sans windows? I hate paying for > >>something that I won't be using. > >> > >>-Chris > >> > >>----------------------------------------------------------------- > >>To get off this list, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >>with Subject: unsubscribe > >>----------------------------------------------------------------- > >> > >> > >> > >> > > > > > >----------------------------------------------------------------- > >To get off this list, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >with Subject: unsubscribe > >----------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > >----------------------------------------------------------------- > >To get off this list, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >with Subject: unsubscribe > >----------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > > > > > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > To get off this list, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with Subject: unsubscribe > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > ----------------------------------------------------------------- To get off this list, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with Subject: unsubscribe -----------------------------------------------------------------
