On Tue, 9 Jan 2001, Visser, Martin (SNO) wrote:
> I am grievously offended. <grin>
>
> We're getting better!! While Compaq et.al. still like integrated mainboards
> and the like, I think they are getting better with bog standard floppy
> drives, hard drives and so forth. Even the business \-oriented Deskpro
> models have been coming out with ATI RAGE graphics etc. And of course we are
> trying to make available drivers for cool hardware like our RAID controllers
> and also provide ports of the remote management agents and the like. We even
> have QuickRestore CDs for Linux for certain models. I think there is now
> clearly a desire to be recognised as being innovative without looking like
> we are trying to lock people in some proprietary path.
I've just had too many friends tell me they'd like my help to upgrade
only to find they have hardware that they paid a significant premium for
and is not upgradable. Often it's of poor quality to boot.
I think that packaging a machine specific linux "restore" cd is not part
of the solution either. I should qualify that by saying I haven't seen
them, but my experience of similar window$ CDs is that they run
roughshod over any customisation of the machine, further enforcing the
machine's status as only useful for the setup it was sold for. I'd be
much more impressed if an effort was made to make the machines modular
and compliant with existing drivers, or to release source for new
drivers where it was not.
I informally act as a hardware purchase advisor for a large number of
friends, and until I see a really fundamental attitude/business practice
shift I'll be no more advising the purchase of a compaq or similar than
I would a winmodem. Sorry, I know your post was in a more light hearted
tone than this reply, but these practices have cost friends a lot of
money.
cheers,
Martin
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