Ok, So your have convinced me not to be concerned. In any case I set up an rsync to another drive.
So far I have communicated with Acer and Micorsoft. Acer have knocked me back cited the age old "contractual obligations with MS" So I asked for the mailing address which I got and will put the request in writing. Which is yet to be drafted. I rang MS and asked for a EULA, and I never got a reply. So I emailed them and asked for for a copy of the EULA and explained that I thought I would be implicitly agreeing to if I used the software or opened the shrink wrapped CDs. They have written back and said the EULA is displayed on booting the machine for the first time. MS said that as the EULA covers IP from both OEM and MS and I should take my concern to Acer. regards Russell On Sun, 30 Oct 2005 13:11:08 +1100 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > On Tue, Oct 25, 2005 at 06:42:07PM +1000, Russell Davie wrote: > > On Tue, 25 Oct 2005 08:44:49 +1000 > > Michael Lake <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > James Purser wrote: > > > > On Mon, 2005-10-24 at 13:28 +0000, l cheung wrote: > > > > > > > >>Get a life, get a power book. :) > > > > > > > > Yes but can you return OSX? > > > > > > It's a good idea to keep OSX on it as a small partition that can be > > > booted by default for the first year. > > > If you have to return the machine under warranty the techos at Broadway > > > (thats where the > > > Apple service centre is) will then be able to boot it and run their > > > diagnostics. You'll get > > > it back with your Linux untouched. Otherwise they will have to do a new > > > install and wipe > > > your Linux. > > > > ooooo, never thought of that... > > > > good point > > I don't find it a very good point at all... > > Hard drives are completely interchangeable and there is absolutely zero excuse > for the official hardware service centre not to have a special hard drive that > they drop into the machine for doing diagnostics. Moreover, they can swap your > hard drive into a different machine that does a sector read/write scan to > prove the hard drive is working correctly and they can do that without > damaging > any of your data. They can even boot off a special disgnostic CD or off a USB > device or off a network device. If Apple don't provide such boostrap options > to their service centres then Apple clearly show no commitment to their > customers. If Apple do provide the option and the service centre can't be > bothered using it then time to look for a better service centre. > > I can remember boot floppies for 486 machines that provided extensive > diagnostics > in just a 1.4M image (including keyboard test). I first saw one about 10 years > ago. The quality of computing services available to the consumer has gone > downhill. > > -------------- > > I recently had to deal with the official Sony service centre in Lane Cove with > regards to getting a warranty repair for a Sony Vaio doorstop, which had some > sort of fault in the keyboard controller. Their first answer to pretty much > anything that they can't obviously diagnose is "software error, probably a > virus or something, warranty does not cover software". I even got the guy to > shut it down, remove the hard drive and boot it with no hard drive and the > keyboard problem was obviously still present (because the constantly repeating > key was causing a steady beeping noise). Then he starts with "maybe you > spilled > something on this" and after that doesn't get a good response he goes back > to the tried-and-true "must be a software problem, probably a virus". > > The only option he gave was to completely wipe the drive and reinstall from > the original CDs before he would even consider taking the machine in for > repair. I'll also point out that this laptop has only ever run MS-Win-XP and > the install was already the standard default Sony install with a bunch of > additional software added afterwards. I tried booting off a Linux CD and found > that exactly the same keyboard fault manifested in Linux as well so I'm 100% > sure it is NOT a software problem and sure enough after a reinstall from the > original Win-XP CDs the fault is exactly the same. > > Basically, the reinstall is just their way of inconveniencing you and giving > you a few hoops to jump through. It is utterly unnecessary and smacks of > the unprofessional buffoonery that is typical in the computing industry and > especially typical of anything sold with a Microsoft operating system. > > I'll also point out that the typical Apple user doesn't no squat about what > is and is not possible so the probably get fed just the same line of junk > because they don't know any better. > > Now I have to wait at least a week to get the machine back and then put in > a good two days work reinstalling all the applications, reconfiguring the > settings, etc, etc. just because Sony don't see a priority in providing > diagnostic tools for their equipment. > > Sony do sell some decent equipment now and then but their attitude to the > consumer is, "You pay money now and then #uc% off". > > -------------- > > Frankly, I would be very very happy to find a manufacturer selling laptops > WITHOUT any hard drives at all who would take the laptop back for warranty > repair WITHOUT any hard drive and actually do their job and repair the > hardware or give you a replacement machine. I would know I'm not paying any > software tax and I could get a decent machine that does what should do. > > - Tel > > > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux) > > iQIVAwUBQ2Qru8fOVl0KFTApAQK65g//XNQeoWwrr2ho5Ig76FY968wxJ7Ioinua > +yg/lpgN7eB3Heo0CxZ9vHg+5qUBojBBIjdOMPUa818M7Lliug2IIEbbfnYpRuaY > 7k3GsTD7cihj+yT0DoebE7FBTIdIKASLqVkVeORmCLRyuGOfne/aJKU/9QjoAlLO > 0FFdtFZNukrizLCNui9PrT4x4f4soYyvA10MDa8m2NrgAHsgaJxGtZx9k8DWDTZx > /6tftFcN3WXQ+40MbovLxcTiA+ZF65ZhFZsRp0N1MTYbKSWcpk9ntIbGrHiSwyqN > d4oLKzyoIOo9utxyjF18fOE9dUYjoiKlf5VSgXEYsLjWa+YIG3OJ4RxMBQMgrm5W > PdbWzztl6BvMlh4Y9bl94wAgwuC3yQYR6HPRaglqEBaOV0kAr/dqY4iXDusvkdym > qLh4BJW3Y610IczmwqHRpd/6D+8dJ1qVPlVu9LvNs2oW/IA7XQNpUyxPoJ54G4oI > D8rCibqnkIIDpNOc3422yOYH6wSiiG6IqauS8cTieEVqUjvZcue0gVaMdpp7f+Uw > aXO7Rr8axlPUEixXJNBVqCh18NY8nWgP6zimaAW5WpErjLn0GaQ1yZmXbTsxLsXk > 8ptkdBrPVO6+yhjt/Mso3vcQMVbasvrB1VaIFp3AHglTJrmDUXGcN5LqZBxiOJii > 64PFjigOA5M= > =pZSd > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > -- > SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ > Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html > -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
