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All about choice vs lack of choice | 297 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
For those in the know - you CAN avoid Windows but not Joe/Jane Public
Authored by: TiddlyPom on Tuesday, January 22 2013 @ 10:24 AM EST
I live in the UK and the laptop I am typing this on was NOT preloaded with Windows but I did have to search far and wide to find a company that would do what I wanted. I cam up with three candidates out of the many dozens of other PC sellers: I ended up with a Vortex III (Clevo PC) - not exactly an average laptop but NOT UEFI and NOT preloaded with Windows. I also have an Acer C7 Chromebook - preloaded with ChromeOS - but on which I am running Chrubuntu.

Most people will buy from well known electrical resellers - in the UK these include companies like: PCWorld, Currys, Toys-R-Us, Argos, Supermarkets (e.g. Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys etc) or direct from well known brands - Dell, Lenovo etc. ALL of these sources pre-load Windows (and NOTHING else)! Your only over choice (generally) is to buy an Apple Mac.

How does that offer choice - it is a monopoly (or perhaps duopoly)! Certainly no choice on a generic PC (which is NOT limited to Windows)!

---
Support Software Freedom - use GPL licenced software like Linux and LibreOffice instead of proprietary software like Microsoft Windows/Office or Apple OS/X

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

All about choice vs lack of choice
Authored by: Wol on Tuesday, January 22 2013 @ 11:47 AM EST
£299 for Windows? That sounds horribly expensive ...

When I've had machines built like that, and admittedly I'm going back a few
years, but an OEM version cost nowhere near that. Just done a search and OEM
Win8 is £70.

It's probably gone up, but they used to charge "parts plus £50" to
supply it fully assembled.

Cheers,
Wol

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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