[Techtalk] Buying a machine without Windows

[Mary Gardiner]

On Sun, Oct 28, 2001 at 08:40:14PM -0800, Akkana wrote:
> Hope this isn't too far off the topic of techtalk (it's not really
> a technical question, but ...)

It's quite on-topic, techtalk roughly means "about computers, and
preferrably Linux."

> So I want to buy a new system, and I DON'T want any money to go
> to Redmond for it.  Preinstalled Linux is optional; I'd be willing
> to pay a little extra to encourage it, but I don't need it and I'm
> not willing to pay double the price of a Windows machine (I don't
> want to reward usury, nor do I want to pay that much).

The way I managed to do this was to order a computer from a little
computer store that assembled it from parts for me. I simply said, "I
don't want to put Windows on it, and I'm certainly not going to pay for
it" and so I didn't get it (OK to tell the truth the disks were FAT by
the time they came and there was the remains of a Windows install there,
I think they installed it to test that the hardware worked).

Look for a store in which software is an extra cost and when you ask for
a quote, say "and no software please."

Look for a store which is simply being used as a warehouse for endless
piles of boxes containing motherboards and chips. They'll be the ones
most likely to sell you a computer assembled from said parts.

Another way to do this is to build your own, I've never done this and I
recommend you don't either until you've had some experience installing
RAM into a motherboard and so on.

Ask for vendors, I suspect you aren't looking in Sydney, Australia, so I
can't recommend any. Ask your local LUG if they're friendly.

-Mary.

-- 
Mary Gardiner
<mary at puzzling.org>