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Dell Ships Gaming Systems Sans Bloat
An anonymous reader writes "Dell has followed up and put their money where their mouth is after HardOCP panned them last year for selling 'gaming systems' that you could not even install some popular 3D games on due to the bloatware on the system. You can now get clean installs on some XPS Dell systems. Dell is running a 'You Spoke, We Listened,' header on their site." From the article: "It seems that Dell has taken our criticism (and our readers as well) to heart and has made the much sought after move to offer select XPS systems with "limited" pre-installed software. We phoned a Dell sales representative late Monday, and he confirmed that the installation is completely clean, except for the included anti-virus program. As explained to us by Dell, There is no AOL installation, no "media jukebox", and no ISP offers to weigh the supplied operating system down."
Exactly, labor and the price of XP makes the difference here moot. Of course as I stated this is especially true for low end systems. You can get a decent low end system WITH 17 flat panel for 350 now. $100 labor (what I charge minimum to build a system (meaning a prebuild barebones and a few extras) and install an OS) plus XP home $81 would be half your cost. Leaving you $169 to buy the parts..
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Sorry but not quite. When you purchase a copy of windows, whether with a new computer or separately, the activation process ties that copy to the hardware it is installed on. This does not stop that copy of windows from being moved to another machine.
If you significantly change your hardware or move your copy of windows to another machine you will be required to reactivate. This may involve calling Microsoft and explaining to them what changed. In the case of moving the installation to another computer (imaging, or fresh installation) the old installation will be deactivated.
All this means is that you may definitely install your legal copy of windows on each new computer that you buy and remove it from the old computer. I believe you may also transfer ownership of your copy to someone else but I do not have the EULA in front of me to verify this.
With regard to newly purchased machines: some OEMs use a Volume Licenses Keyed (VLK) version of windows. Also the EULAs on some verisions provided by OEMs state that the install is a "single-use" license. These types of installs may not be able to be transferred to another computer. Check out the FAQ for more information.
Merlin.
At my office we get a set of 15-20 Dell laptops twice a year (we're a school). I open one box, uninstall all of the crapware, install all of the software the students will need, including putting our own anti-virus on them. Run sysprep, and then image that laptop. The rest of the laptops are then hooked up to a dedicated switch and the image multicasted out to them. Each laptop is then powered up, given a unique name and put in the domain.
One thing to look into if you are pushing that many systems through, Dell offers a service where they will load a custom image on new systems for you. They will only do it if your volume is high enough, and your's probably is. You simply setup an image, send it to them and all new systems come pre-loaded to your configuration.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.
Changed my mind completely about a new system I was planning to buy. No dual cores for me, thank you. I'll either grab an FX-57 when AM2 comes out and drops the DDR1 systems' prices, or I'll wait until the end of the year, see if Conroe lives up to the hype and how Vista affects either system.