From owner-freebsd-questions Tue Jun 5 16:40:36 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from guru.mired.org (okc-65-26-235-186.mmcable.com [65.26.235.186]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 06B7037B405 for ; Tue, 5 Jun 2001 16:40:33 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mwm@mired.org) Received: (qmail 89341 invoked by uid 100); 5 Jun 2001 23:40:32 -0000 From: Mike Meyer MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <15133.28144.41630.345809@guru.mired.org> Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2001 18:40:32 -0500 To: Flemming Froekjaer Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Laptop without Windows In-Reply-To: <40727609@toto.iv> X-Mailer: VM 6.90 under 21.1 (patch 14) "Cuyahoga Valley" XEmacs Lucid X-face: "5Mnwy%?j>IIV\)A=):rjWL~NB2aH[}Yq8Z=u~vJ`"(,&SiLvbbz2W`;h9L,Yg`+vb1>RG% *h+%X^n0EZd>TM8_IB;a8F?(Fb"lw'IgCoyM.[Lg#r\ Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Flemming Froekjaer types: > I was looking at buying a Dell Inspiron 8000, but there was no option to > buy it without a windows os. > So i called them instead and explained that I wanted to use the laptop > with FreeBSD. They said that would be ok, but i would have to pay the > same price, as with the OS. > Is that normal? > I know Microsoft is not giving DELL free OS licenses, and I don't want > to support MS by buying there OS, when I'm not going to use it. As others have pointed out, you don't get a choice. However, boot windows and get to the Windows license agreement. Check to see what it says about what to do if you don't accept that agreement, as you don't need to. It should say something about returning it for a refund. Install FreeBSD. Go back to the store and bitch to get a refund. Follow up with the manufacturer if you have to. It's paid off in at least one case. You may be able to return the laptop with FreeBSD installed and get a full refund - after enough time has passed that you can buy a newer/better one for the same cash. If nothing else, you've made the store and manufacturer aware that there are people who object to this, and that you're not bound by the license agreement. That last may present some interesting possibilities, depending on the local copyright law. The other alternative is to buy an OS X laptop from Apple. That comes with BSD software preinstalled and manufacturers support for the hardware (which I find *very* tempting). http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message