[Novalug] Laptop question again.

[Roger W. Broseus]

The salesman obviously didn't know what he was talking about! (MS checks
on cheats / piracy with their "windows validation" approach.) PC suppliers
save $$ by NOT providing CDs. Further, they get cut-rate deals from M$ for
pre-installing Window$ and limiting installs on other PCs (even valid
ones, e.g., when switching to a new machine or HD) by not providing a copy
of Win on CD. It's that simple.

I'll only follow-on with saying I opted to spend more bucks for a laptop
and got a Thinkpad T42 because of the known reputation of IBM for
reliability and having Linux compatible hardware. That said, a friend's
son just got a hot-shi_ HP and tried Linux. Ubuntu 6.06 didn't do the
trick for him but "Edgy" (ver 6.10) did: all hardware, sound, keypad,
sleep, etc. worked; we did not try the modem but he didn't care about
that. Modem are the common stumbling block for most laptops because
drivers for the "Winmodems" built-in are not available (at least not free)
for these software-modems. In this case, a modem in a PCMCIA card or Win
on dual boot is the answer.

As far as Vista goes? I don't jump into a new OS until it's past "beta,"
SP2 in the case of Win$.

Good luck.
-- 
Roger W. Broseus

> Thank you to everyone who replied.  I am still (sort of) surprised that
> there are no CDs to reinstall M$ Windows.  The salesman said it is to beat
> piracy.  If you create a backup copy of the image, how will that help
> beating piracy?
>
> I am still leaning towards HP laptops.  They seem to be the only ones with
> good price/value for a dual HD laptop.
>
> Regards,
>
> Subbarao
>
>
> Stephan Greene <ks1g04 at gmail.com> wrote: On 3/31/07, Jason
> <novalug at jasons.us> wrote: I haven't seen any laptop (or desktop, for that
> matter) come with an OS
> CD for several years.  What they usually do is have a partition on the
> HDD with the OS on it that you use instead.  It's a PITA.
[snip]