Compaqs W/ubuntu @ Tesco

[Shah Jahan]

We were at Tesco in CM today and they had some Compaq laptops ranging from about 15k-23k and they all seemed to have Ubuntu Installed on them?

Obviously inquires to the sales girl as to whether this was a Compaq factory installed and configured Ububtu or by Somchai in the back room, were met with ...

but That is the question. What do we know about these? I would really LOVE to get my hands on a Compaq factory pre-configured Ubuntu laptop as I will know then EVERYTHING works!!!

But if it is a Somchai job, then I will stick with my own patchwork creation.

Thoughts? Comments?

[nisboy]

If you look around you will find that most brands are available with Ubuntu here in Thailand. I even saw a few laptops with Mint on them last weekend.

I think the reason that its done is to save Somchai some money. He would then take it around the corner and have an illegal copy of windows installed.

Unfortunate, yes. But at least us Linux users can buy decent hardware without paying the Microsoft Tax.

My next laptop will definitely have Linux pre-installed.

[Shah Jahan]

If you look around you will find that most brands are available with Ubuntu here in Thailand. I even saw a few laptops with Mint on them last weekend.

I think the reason that its done is to save Somchai some money. He would then take it around the corner and have an illegal copy of windows installed.

Unfortunate, yes. But at least us Linux users can buy decent hardware without paying the Microsoft Tax.

My next laptop will definitely have Linux pre-installed.

Ah ook, so these are the COmpaq official pre-installed and configured linux boxes? Meaning that everything should work out of the box? Yay!

[astral]

Compaq/HP does sell pc's with Linux installed and have been doing so for several years.

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2004/040803a.html

[Plus]

I asked about Linux machines at the Mall Bangkapi (Bangkok) a couple of days ago - they didn't have any, and it was official Mall computer section with many different brands. I was disappointed.

The only option was one Asus notebook with "ExpressGate" - a version of Linux built into the motherboard, boots in 8 seconds to Internet access. Of course it's not a proper operating system and you only get four-five applications like FF based browser, media player, skype and pidgin, but it's still interesting.

[Richb2004v2]

It seems strange to sell Linux laptops in Thailand, as I didn't think that they would know very much about it here. When I bought my Linux Asus machine I had a bit of 'too and fro' to convince them that I didn't need Windows installing on it and that it already has a system, even though it said 'Linux' on the box in big text.

[Plus]

At one time Acer and Compaq used to sell Linux laptops to reduce prices but they apparently stopped this practice. It was some Taiwanese "Linpus".