Re: [gentoo-user] purchasing a dell laptop

[Mick]

On Thursday 25 Jun 2015 16:06:31 Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Thu, 25 Jun 2015 10:36:36 -0400, gottlieb@×××.edu wrote:
> > > The XPS 13 at least is available as a "Developer Edition" that comes
> > > with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS instead of Windows.
> >
> > I "dual boot" windows and gentoo.  The quotes are there since my current
> > machine (3 years old) has never been in windows post-installation.  The
> > advantage of having windows available occurs if you need dell
> > maintenance.
>
> Which is a rather poor reason for keeping Windows around. The Ubuntu
> version is not significantly cheaper, but it would make dealing with
> support that much easier if the machine was supposed to have Linux on it
> in the first place.

When I bought my 16" XPS Ubuntu was definitely not available and when I asked 
(repeatedly) I was told that if I wanted a Linux OS I would have to buy a 
cheaper laptop that came with Ubuntu.  They were also adamant in their very 
polite Indian accent that the only OS that came with the laptop I wanted was 
MSWindows 7 and they would not sell it without an OS.

Of course if you are a big corporate customer they will be more accomodating, 
but in my case they were reading off a script with any option available for 
me, as long as it was exactly what was shown on the Dell website.  :-p

If I could source the same components at the time and assemble the laptop 
myself, I would pay slightly less, but definitely get a straight case that 
shuts without damaging the monitor screen.  For the same money I would 
probably get a better quality case that isn't and doesn't feel as plastic as 
this one.  However, when I looked I didn't find any build-your-own laptop 
options in the market at the time.
-- 
Regards,
Mick