Hi there,
In somewhat a reply to this month's FSFE newsletter, regarding avoiding Microsoft tax:
" - How can you avoid the Microsoft tax when buying a new laptop? Kevin Keijzer documented some tips and tricks on how to buy a new laptop[33] which is a nice follow-up on last months test of a preinstalled GNU/Linux laptop from Dell[34]. Help us in gathering more information on laptops without Microsoft tax in our wiki[35]. "
I didn't have an wiki account, and created one but it seems that it needs to be manually approved, so here's some info via e-mail (and please someone put it on the wiki):
Unlike what transpires on that blog post, you can buy some laptops with GNU/Linux on a regular shop in some European countries, including Portugal. We have been allways one or two different choices on the shelves for a couple of years now. This models are usually also sold in some (but not all) other countries with the same sofware. Nowadays we actually have three "international brands' laptops" to choose from (but they're all variants of the same):
ASUS X201E-KX133 ASUS X201E-KX134 ASUS X201E-KX135
Asus has been, indeed, the best laptop vendor in Portugal in this regard the last few years.
We also have on our shelves INSYS WV2251ELQL, and there's allways several INSYS laptops with GNU/Linux, but not allways do they manage to have them on the usual laptop-selling shops. INSYS is a Portuguese brand, and I don't know if they sell on or to other countries.
PS - just to be sure about ASUS' models nowadays, I did a search for X201E on the web, and the first result was this model on amazon.com... with Ubuntu.
Best regards,
On 07/04/2013 08:49 PM, Marcos Marado wrote:
Unlike what transpires on that blog post, you can buy some laptops with GNU/Linux on a regular shop in some European countries, including Portugal.
The situation in Greece has pretty much changed the market in that aspect. From a very quick calculation it seems that around 1/3 of the laptops in a popular shop in Greece [0] are now sold either with some distribution of Linux or FreeDOS preinstalled. I don't know how much they actually sell, but before 2010 it was almost impossible to find such a laptop.
[0]. http://www.e-shop.gr/search_main.phtml?table=PER&category=%D6%CF%D1%C7%D...
regards, Nikos
Hi,
Am 2013-07-09 15:58, schrieb Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos:
The situation in Greece has pretty much changed the market in that aspect. From a very quick calculation it seems that around 1/3 of the laptops in a popular shop in Greece [0] are now sold either with some distribution of Linux or FreeDOS preinstalled. I don't know how much they actually sell, but before 2010 it was almost impossible to find such a laptop.
Are there Linux user groups rising? I hope not all of those Laptops get infected with a dubious windows license. :)
Another supported alternative seems to be chromebooks which are even for a good part supported by Coreboot: http://www.coreboot.org/Chromebooks
Best wishes Michael
Le 09/07/2013 16:11, Michael Kesper a écrit :
Hi,
Am 2013-07-09 15:58, schrieb Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos:
The situation in Greece has pretty much changed the market in that aspect. From a very quick calculation it seems that around 1/3 of the laptops in a popular shop in Greece [0] are now sold either with some distribution of Linux or FreeDOS preinstalled. I don't know how much they actually sell, but before 2010 it was almost impossible to find such a laptop.
Are there Linux user groups rising? I hope not all of those Laptops get infected with a dubious windows license. :)
Hi, yes, I'm amazed too. I don't think it's the same situation in france. Is this related with the social and economic sink of Greece?
On 09.07.2013 16:33, Stephane Ascoet wrote:
Le 09/07/2013 16:11, Michael Kesper a écrit :
Hi,
Am 2013-07-09 15:58, schrieb Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos:
The situation in Greece has pretty much changed the market in that aspect. From a very quick calculation it seems that around 1/3 of the laptops in a popular shop in Greece [0] are now sold either with some distribution of Linux or FreeDOS preinstalled. I don't know how much they actually sell, but before 2010 it was almost impossible to find such a laptop.
Are there Linux user groups rising? I hope not all of those Laptops get infected with a dubious windows license. :)
Hi, yes, I'm amazed too. I don't think it's the same situation in france. Is this related with the social and economic sink of Greece?
I baught my laptop at https://www.thinkpenguin.com/. A Company Where Freedom Matters.
Tobias Platen
You can find the ASUS 1015E-DS03 on newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231067
249.99 comes with Ubuntu.
Immanuel
On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 3:38 PM, Tobias Platen tobias@platen-software.dewrote:
On 09.07.2013 16:33, Stephane Ascoet wrote:
Le 09/07/2013 16:11, Michael Kesper a écrit :
Hi,
Am 2013-07-09 15:58, schrieb Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos:
The situation in Greece has pretty much changed the market in that aspect. From a very quick calculation it seems that around 1/3 of the laptops in a popular shop in Greece [0] are now sold either with some distribution of Linux or FreeDOS preinstalled. I don't know how much they actually sell, but before 2010 it was almost impossible to find such a laptop.
Are there Linux user groups rising? I hope not all of those Laptops get infected with a dubious windows license. :)
Hi, yes, I'm amazed too. I don't think it's the same situation in france. Is this related with the social and economic sink of Greece?
I baught my laptop at https://www.thinkpenguin.com/. A Company Where Freedom Matters.
Tobias Platen _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion@fsfeurope.org https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion
On Tue, 2013-07-09 at 16:33 +0200, Stephane Ascoet wrote:
Le 09/07/2013 16:11, Michael Kesper a écrit :
Hi,
Am 2013-07-09 15:58, schrieb Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos:
The situation in Greece has pretty much changed the market in that aspect. From a very quick calculation it seems that around 1/3 of the laptops in a popular shop in Greece [0] are now sold either with some distribution of Linux or FreeDOS preinstalled. I don't know how much they actually sell, but before 2010 it was almost impossible to find such a laptop.
Are there Linux user groups rising? I hope not all of those Laptops get infected with a dubious windows license. :)
Hi, yes, I'm amazed too. I don't think it's the same situation in france. Is this related with the social and economic sink of Greece?
Probably yes. Although, as Nikos mentioned, we don't know the sell rates of these laptops. I guess that most people would stay with the pre-installed OS before thinking of changing it to something else.
Linux user groups are declining here (like most of the Europe I think), in favor of Free Software and Free Culture communities that emerge around Hackerspaces :)
Hi Marcos,
* Marcos Marado mindboosternoori@gmail.com [2013-07-04 19:49:41 +0100]:
I didn't have an wiki account, and created one but it seems that it needs to be manually approved, so here's some info via e-mail (and please someone put it on the wiki):
Is it now approved? So could you add the information? Else I'll have to investigate what went wrong.
Regards, Matthias