ziadel

does anyone even sell a computer that is available without windows XP anymore?

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Hardknock

What does it matter? Just wipe the drive and install whatever you want anyway. But to answer your question, (in the case of notebooks where one still cannot build one themselves from stracth) no.

phukraut

I believe Walmart does (or used to) sell boxes with what used to be Lindows. And I think Dell sells boxes that come with nothing installed and a disk with FreeDos on it, but it's usually MORE expensive than buying something with Windows. Where I work, we got all new boxes with Win2k on it from Dell. I do not know if this extends to notebooks though.

muckluck

I remember hearing about a student special, and all it was, was a cheap laptop from Dell that came with Mandriva instead of XP. I'll see if I can find it for you.

-- edit --

found an article for it Mandriva Notebook

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cyrnel

Doesn't seem like any major computer brands are doing it anymore but some ODM vendors still do. A few retailers now and then too. Hard to know how this affects your price since they're generally cheaper than the branded version of the same machine anyway.

Look for dealers of Sager, Compal, Clevo. That should catch quite a few. (Dells are mostly Compal & Clevo even if they add their own skins now.)

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There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

Pragma

Paying the "Microsoft tax" (as some put it) on a system that you know will not ever be running Windows is a frustrating experience - and so it'd be nice to find a way around it. Unfortunately, as cyrnel said, no major computer brands are selling such laptops anymore (don't sell desktops like that, either, for the most part).

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muckluck

Personally, I think you should just buy any old notebook with the cheapest version of Windows you can throw onto it, then put your own OS onto it. As crynel said, alot of small vendors out there sell native Linux notebooks, but if you want a big name, then you probably will have to buy it with windows then wipe it. (hmm.. should've included all of that in my first post... sorry.)

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cyrnel

This may or may not have been clear. Those small vendors are the big laptop manufacturers. Dell, apple, HP, sony, toshiba, IBM (R.I.P.)... almost every laptop is a rebadged (and sometimes reskinned) model from one of a dozen Pacific Rim ODMs. Sometimes laptops are cheaper without the familiar reseller brand on a tag, sometimes they aren't. Some models are exclusive designs for a period which means you have to buy from the big name anyway. The "best price" is fluid and frustrating to figure out. I already get a headache without throwing in whether or not Windows is mandatory.

Like muckluck & the others said, spend the effort finding your favorite system & price and wipe XP.

__________________
There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

Mbnfc

yes, frys sold a $99 desktop with linspire installed this black friday

santafe5000

A lot of the reseller's of corp. off lease laptops sell them sans O/S. The selling price is usually not much lower than one with O/S installed. Maybe $50. Check Tigerdirect or Overstock.com to get an idea of availability and pricing.
If you wanted a newer version, you would custom order one without an O/S installed.
Really depends on what type of machine you had in mind.

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Willravel

OMG I love the Notebook!! They were so in love!!! Just Kidding.
www.apple.com/store
Check out the iBook and Powerbooks.

samiam

When I was looking for my last laptop, I was told that ACER sold a laptop with only DOS installed. I wasn't interested at the time and did not compare prices, but a dealer or their web site should have it.

Pragma

willravel: Ah, but now does Apple sell their computers without operating systems? Suppose I don't want to run Mac OS X and instead want to run Open/FreeBSD or some other Linux/BSD variant that isn't OSX. I still have to pay for the operating system

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Willravel

I'd have to really look, but probably not. You'd have to do the same dealy with Mac as Windows: buy comp w/ OS, then delete OS. I could be wrong.

Pragma

A quick glance around the Apple store shows that for the laptops or desktops, you're pretty much screwed and have to buy OSX.

I've have thought that at least for the XServe servers, you'd have the option of an operating system, as pretty much all hardware vendors (Dell, HP, etc.) give you the option of which operating system you want when you're ordering beefy hardware (i.e.: Windows Server 2003, Redhat Enterprise Linux, None), but you're still locked into purchasing a license for OSX on their server hardware.

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ziadel

this is disappointing.

I'm going to call alienware and bitch.

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Vote for Freedom
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cyrnel

ziadel, Check Sager and friends for the same thing without Windows. Alienware doesn't make anything but the shells, and that's only for the high end.

__________________
There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195