On Thu, 5 Feb 2009, Christopher Sawtell wrote:
Hmm. Close, very close. Trouble is no battery, no screen, no keyboard....
Indeed, but you said that you had:-
"totally given up trying to buy a laptop"
So you actually do still want to buy a laptop?
Well... there seems to be a new hype word in the market these
days. "netbook", "sub notebook", "mini notebook".
I think what is happening is economics... these things are actually
pretty cheap to make and the windows licence is becoming a irreducible
and significant proportion of the cost. However people are wanting
these devices for browsing, basic editing and media players. They
don't want them as desktop replacements. ie. Windows is overkill.
ie. So far _every_ new laptop for sale I have been able to touch in
Christchurch is not for sale without windows tax, but _every_ netbook
has a linux variant.
ie. There is a fresh gust of change a blowing.... and I want to give
it a bit of encouragement.
My suggestion is to re-orient the mind to so that it allows you to get
ex-lease laptops which may have run commercial software in a previous
incarnation. You can remove windows by booting a system rescue disc in
the 'clean computer' mode - type 'dban' at the boot prompt.
The trouble is every company pool laptop that I have ever used has
started to get more than a bit flaky with age... low battery life,
dodgy hinges etc. etc.
John Carter Phone : (64)(3) 358 6639
Tait Electronics Fax : (64)(3) 359 4632
PO Box 1645 Christchurch Email : [email protected]
New Zealand
