Acers Laptop Ad in Times of India (today: 9th May '05), page 15.the "fine print"
***
"the Linux that is loaded is a free version and would have limited functionality until another operating system is installed"
***
this is really stupid!... can anything be done to educate the acer guys? this doesn't make any sense. It is extremely misleading. What "Missing / defunct " functionality are they talking about? I think it will take us very little time to get *fully* functional *free* *Linux* working on that laptop that they can give out. anyone has any contact with acer?
Free software doest work like proprietary stuff which revels in *limited" functionality.
Ads like these are _extremely misleading, damaging and do more to confuse people about GNU / FSF than anything else. more M$ fud ?
c'ya Erle
Erle Pereira wrote:
"the Linux that is loaded is a free version and would have limited functionality until another operating system is installed"
...
this is really stupid!... can anything be done to educate the acer guys? this doesn't make any sense. It is extremely misleading. What "Missing / defunct " functionality are they talking about? I think it will take us
Probably something like a nvidia display driver which only exists in a non-free version.
Erle Pereira wrote:
Acers Laptop Ad in Times of India (today: 9th May '05), page 15.the "fine print"
"the Linux that is loaded is a free version and would have limited functionality until another operating system is installed"
It is true. :) as far as functionality is concerned. The factory-loaded Linux is of limited functionality. I recently bought an Acer aspire 3002, and it came with Linpus Linux (www.linupus.com). It booted to init 3 only, which will help one only to find if the hardware is okay and with no X server installed. I scrapped it the second day for Suse pro 9.2. And I don't think Acer is gonna disctribute any better Linux distro with the laptops, though I'd really appreciate it.
this is really stupid!... can anything be done to educate the acer guys?
Well, you will get the Acer India number from www.acer.co.in, If you are really interested in educating the marketing guys ( and if they ever care to listen to :)
this doesn't make any sense. It is extremely misleading. What "Missing / defunct " functionality are they talking about? I think it will take us very little time to get *fully* functional *free* *Linux* working on that laptop that they can give out. anyone has any contact with acer?
Free software doest work like proprietary stuff which revels in *limited" functionality.
Ads like these are _extremely misleading, damaging and do more to confuse people about GNU / FSF than anything else. more M$ fud ?
How come it's misleading to say that "The distro I give you is of limited functionality" !!! I don't think it has something to do with the way GNU/FSF and our philosophies work, except that the loaded OS is GNU/Linux with limited functionality :) It's a problem with Acer's Policy not ours, isn't it?
Binulal
actually i was suprised b/c the first series of acer laptops (the 50k ones they came in with) came with mandrake. one of my colleagues bought that one, and he was so pleased that he kept it running, his intial plan was to format and.. reload... (and hes now mostly converted) hes an end-user period, and would uses it as such. more than a year now.. no issues at all ( of course besides the battery time)
regards Erle
From: Erle Pereira erle@erlepereira.com
Acers Laptop Ad in Times of India (today: 9th May '05), page 15.the "fine print"
"the Linux that is loaded is a free version and would have limited functionality until another operating system is installed"
Acer sucks anyway. Don't buy acer. They are cheap chinese goods with "Acer" stickers....
this is really stupid!... can anything be done to educate the acer guys? this doesn't make any sense. It is extremely misleading. What "Missing / defunct " functionality are they talking about? I think it will take us very little time to get *fully* functional *free* *Linux* working on that laptop that they can give out. anyone has any contact with acer?
Fine print and advertising have always "misled" people ;). This time its no different.
Free software doest work like proprietary stuff which revels in *limited" functionality.
Ads like these are _extremely misleading, damaging and do more to confuse people about GNU / FSF than anything else. more M$ fud ?
With GNU/Linux in it's current state, its not as "fool" proof as M$ Windows. So I would expect "fools"...ahem...i mean users to shy away from GNU OSes ;)
Regards, Dinesh.
_________________________________________________________________ Is your PC infected? Get a FREE online computer virus scan from McAfee® Security. http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963
Dinesh Joshi wrote:
Acer sucks anyway. Don't buy acer. They are cheap chinese goods with "Acer" stickers....
I disagree that Acer sucks. I should know. I own an Acer Aspire 3002 NLC (running Mandrake Linux 10.1).
As for being cheap, I don't think anybody would have a problem with that. ;)
-- Clinton Goveas - http://www.clintongoveas.com
Acer sucks anyway. Don't buy acer. They are cheap chinese goods with "Acer" stickers....
I disagree that Acer sucks. I should know. I own an Acer Aspire 3002 NLC (running Mandrake Linux 10.1).
As for being cheap, I don't think anybody would have a problem with that. ;)
Pedantically, there is a lot of difference between cost-effective, inexpensive and cheap ;).
Regards,
ah
-
Amol Hatwar -
Binulal Narayanan -
Clinton Goveas -
Dinesh Joshi -
Erle Pereira -
Philip Tellis