Carl Cerecke wrote: > > Volker Kuhlmann wrote: > > > Out of interest, I also rang Cyclone (also sold by Campus Computers), > > and their sales staff said no problem - but I'd have to give a reason > > why I wouldn't want windows on it. Linux is a good reason. Computer > > Science bought Cyclone... > > Computer Science at university (if I'm not mistaken, Pete?) generally > don't care about what Campus Computers do. They've bought BCL mainly. As of this year, with the Cyclone purchase, we have bought from everyone :-). Insite the first two years, BCL the next three, and Cyclone this year. And we have purchased Compaq 19" screens the last two years and Apple Mac for another lab.
There are now three 2nd tier suppliers to the University (Compaq and apple are the 1st tier "name brand") BCL, Insite and Cyclone that meet the IT department standard of quality and support. While it is not an official policy yet, there is pressure to buy through Campus computers and they are now doing quite good work for the big buyers and linux users. All machines were tested and benchmarked by IT for windows and RedHat 8.0 There were some specific things like quite fans that library wanted. We missed one thing with lack of time (sound is not in big demand) but hopefully the driver patch will come out in RH8.1) We only saw results of the testing without brand names and without pricing. In the end we had a meeting of all the big purchasers and happened this year to choose the same machine for low AND high-end use (with some slight variations) and it was the cheapest. That was the Cyclone machine. When discussing what to purchase, price was a major consideration (because performance was reasonably similar). So I suspect Insite is shooting itself in the foot if it is compulsory for them to put an extra $100-$200 Microsoft Tax on the price of their machines. Can't confirm that completely as we didn't find out the details of the other anonymous machines once we all agreed on our selection. Of course, Next year it may all change as the companies review why they missed out and fix the problems for the next round. Keep the pressure on Insite and they will probably review their Windows policy (iff Linux become a more significant player in their market area) Pete -- ------------------------------------------------------------------- - I N V E S T I N A L L U N I V E R S I T Y S T A F F - ------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Glassenbury Computer Science dept. [EMAIL PROTECTED] University of Canterbury +64 3 3642987 ext 7762 New Zealand
