[nzlug] Dell are sooo pwn3d

[Mathew Carley]

USD$59 = about NZD$76 - so thats close to what I might expect, unless it 
was Pro. "Back in the olden days[1]..." we used to buy XP Home for I 
think NZD$89+GST from Tech Pac... or maybe that was the price after 
markup... I forget now. We also sold our machines sans OS!

If only NZ was as strong a market as (most markets in) SE Asia, where 
you can buy any brand laptop sans Windows[2,3] then maybe Dell, HP et al 
could be convinced to not sell products with the windows tax: or people 
could just buy local, where Microsoft isn't likely to have their hands 
as deeply in the manufacturers pockets as they do with the big 8[4,5,6].

1. OK, so it was 2002.
2. I was going to buy an HP in Thailand from a department store last 
year with "DOS" installed - literally they just had done format /q /s 
and sold it as is**. Price was decent, too!
3. Though, I did see the clerk running an older couple through an 
install of Windows XP brought for about $3 at Panthip Plaza, right in 
the shop! The Thai distribution(s) of Linux are government funded, but 
out of date, as I haven't seen any development done for about 2 years as 
of July 2006.
4. Defined as HP (Compaq), IBM (Lenovo), Acer, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, 
Sony, Asus, NEC.
5. Some of these brands are more prevalent in certain markets only. I 
would also include Toshiba, but they tend to do more laptops than desktops.
6. Apple doesn't count in this particular argument

Wow, I can't believe I made my conditional statements as long as the 
argment itself.

Mathew


Matthew Poole wrote:
>
> On Tue, 26 Jun 2007, David McNab wrote:
>
>> Hmm, paying $100+ to a convicted monopolist for software I won't be
>> using, that's a good option.... NOT!
>>
> Very, very unlikely to be $100. Dell get ridiculously good OEM deals 
> on their MS pre-loads, with informed speculation putting it around the 
> USD50 mark per system.
> I think the best "tax refund" I've seen on the 'net from someone who 
> pursued the matter with their laptop mfr was USD59, and it was from a 
> company smaller than Dell.
>