On Sat, Jan 22, 2011 at 7:15 PM, Abhijit Navale abhijit.foss@gmail.comwrote:
When I looked to buy a branded laptop, I felt much bad that I can customize a laptop *BUT* I MUST select a M$ operating system. And this really is like forcing us to pay money even if we do not want to buy it. Is there any talks before this post or is there a way to buy a branded laptop (like HP, DELL or a sony vaio).
If there is no way, why are we not even trying to make a way?
Its tough to get such a laptop from a US based company.
Reason is, cost of $50 - $70 (approx additional cost of Windows 7) is not significant in US /EU markets. With Office 2010's barebone version available for free on these laptops, most customers prefer a laptop that comes with Windows and MS Office.
And markets like India are not large enough for these to invest and develop a model without OS. These companies might have one or two Linux models, but that is just for namesake.
However, Asian companies like MSI, ASUS do have laptops without OS.
-Shamit