That is exactly what I said… in my second post! Perhaps you meant: “you didn’t overtly say THAT, in your first post”, which would be correct, but still would allow space for my second consideration. As a matter of fact, when I said: “before choosing Dell, I visited both ZaReason and System76. I wanted to shop from the latter, but, as I found out from their shipping information, they ‘only ship within the United States and Canada’. Which was a real pity, because I now somewhat regret having been forced to buy from Dell”, I pointed out I was interested in System76 offers, but not in ZaReason’s, meaning I found their deals worth the price as opposed to ZaReason’s, which in my statement had been ruled out, indeed. So, I didn’t say that, correct, but that was still implied, and made explicit in my second contribution.

Joseph says:
“Regardless, you get what you pay for. If you pay for a Windows machine, you get a Windows machine. It’s nice if it runs Linux, but it’s not at all guaranteed.!

Your statement is again imprecise: I didn’t pay for a Windows machine, I paid for a machine which, incidentally, had Windows pre-installed. The same machine should be shipped with Ubuntu pre-installed, as it was clear when I entered ‘Ubuntu’ in Dell search-box, and the Inspiron mini 10 came out. But, unfortunately, they mislead purchasers, for when I clicked on the picture, the next page showed only the machine with Windows preinstalled. That is, I bought the machine for I chose that was the best deal, I couldn’t find a way to get rid of the OS imposed by the vendor. Which, again, is quite different from what you stated. Besides, I already knew Lucid worked on it, so in my case it was guaranteed, otherwise it wasn’t an option. Plus, as Jef Spaleta pointed out, the mini is certified against Lucid.

Joseph says:
“Don’t buy Windows PCs unless there really is no other option. Unless you really just want Windows. This is perhaps where Apple does it right, although they inhibit your freedoms to do so.”

As I already wrote, for me there wasn’t really any other, for the reasons already explained. I didn’t want Windows, in fact I’m not using it. Still, the machine with Windows pre-installed represented a better deal, so I decided to put my ideals aside, and buy it nonetheless. It’s not my duty to educate vendors, or to solve Bug #1 all by myself. Granted I could have handed around € 200 more for a Teo to teach Dell a lesson, but how much difference would have that made? I still believe something rotten in Dell business practice, and that’s where things should be forced to change. As an individual with limited economic resources I trust my choice will not change the world, if I’m already forced by the system itself to make that specific choice in the first place.

That wasn’t what you said.

Regardless, you get what you pay for. If you pay for a Windows machine, you get a Windows machine. It’s nice if it runs Linux, but it’s not at all guaranteed. Plus, your money will be used to fund initiatives like the MSFT/HP one described in the Comes document (and linked above).

Don’t buy Windows PCs unless there really is no other option. Unless you really just want Windows. This is perhaps where Apple does it right, although they inhibit your freedoms to do so.

Dell Laptops:
Inspiron 1420
Inspiron 1545
Inspiron 6400
Latitude 2100
Mini 10v
Vostro 1720
Vostro 3300
Vostro 3700

Dell Desktops:
Inspirion 580
Optiplex 360

Neither ZaReason nor System76 have any desktops or laptops listed as certified with 10.04 yet.

Makes you wonder. How much is Canonical hardware certification really worth? If the Ubuntu userbase are happiest recommending OEM vendors who are avoiding the hardware certification process that Canonical offers…should any vendor bother spending money for the cert?

I didn’t think this was really an option, I’ll see if I can get a refund as well, thanks!

Joseph says:
> System76 ships us/canada only, but ZaReason ships to a fairly large number of international locations:

I know, I just wasn’t interested. I found their prices too high for the hardware they sell, and although I would have loved to support them for their efforts to ship with Ubuntu pre-installed, my pockets and I were in disagreement.

http://search.euro.dell.com/results.aspx?s=gen&c=uk&l=en&cs=&k=ubuntu&cat=all&x=0&y=0

Which allowed me to buy the Latitude 2100 with Ubuntu:

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=N4X21001&l=en&oc=L0521001&rbc=L0521001&s=bsd

I cant find the good old mini 10v, but they’re offering SOMETHING at least.

http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20100131172023435
“Current MICROSOFT-HP Emerging Markets efforts:

* South East Asia. HP discontinued its Linux SKUs beginning on November 18th. This is based on joint marketing effort that spans six months to promote low cost Windows SKU’s with $30 extra channel incentives that focus on white box resellers. The goal is to enable the whitebox resellers to offer HP branded PCs instead of naked PCs.”

“I visited both ZaReason and System76. I wanted to shop from the latter, but, as I found out from their shipping information, they “only ship within the United States and Canada”. Which was a real pity, because I now somewhat regret having been forced to buy from Dell.”

System76 ships us/canada only, but ZaReason ships to a fairly large number of international locations: http://zareason.com/shop/pages.php?pageid=17

HTH.

if there is enough demand for things, people will sell them.