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What Does It Take To Get a PC With XP?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the sell-your-soul-to-the-devil dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Christopher Null tried to buy a computer with Windows XP pre-installed on it from the United States' nine biggest PC makers. His findings: You can get one, but be prepared to fib."

7 of 513 comments (clear)

  1. With XP? How about without Windows? by aztektum · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I have been looking at ordering a new laptop. I have been considering the Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 with the 256MB nVidia graphics card. My plan is to wipe it and use Ubuntu (according to ubuntuforums.org the Y510 is nicely compatible out of the box.) I'd rather not pay the Windows tax.

    Anyone know if I talk to Lenovo I can get them to sell me the laptop without Windows?

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    :: aztek ::
    No sig for you!!
  2. Does anyone remember by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 4, Interesting

    when Windows 95 first came out. Microsoft were so confident that users would enjoy it they even included the ability to roll back to Windows 3.1

    I wonder why they didn't include this option with Windows Vista...

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    Summation 2
    1. Re:Does anyone remember by BUL2294 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Microsoft were so confident that users would enjoy it they even included the ability to roll back to Windows 3.1

      Here's something shocking... Windows 3.11 (both Windows and Windows for Workgroups) outsold Windows 95 in both 1995 and 1996 calendar years. The reverse didn't happen until 1997. In fact, so many PCs were sold with Win3.1x after the introduction of Win95, catching software vendors by surprise, that several 32-bit apps initially released as Win95-only got back-ported to Windows 3.1x & Win32s in a subsequent interim release. (Case-in-point: Corel Print House from 1995/1996).

      Your useless trivia for the day...

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      Windows 3.1x calc: 3.11 - 3.10 = 0.00
  3. Re:Torrent by courteaudotbiz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Will they still sell XP licenses through their WGA program??? This could be a great solution!

  4. Re:How is this difficult? by KillerBob · · Score: 4, Interesting

    One more thing... you can also choose that option on the XPS line of gaming systems.

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    If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
  5. Re:That's Microsoft for you by Blue+Stone · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The fact that an OEM XP CD is marked 'not for resale' doesn't mean anything - as should have been proved by a recent court decision regarding music promo CDs, where the judge ruled that they were a gift and no longer the property of the record companies - who consequently had NO SAY over what was done with them (short of copyright laws and duplication).

    If that's the case for gifts, where you've paid money for something, the case for right of resale would be even stronger.

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    Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
  6. Assurance that */Linux has a driver by tepples · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Go to pricewatch.com and check the 'laptops, no OS' section or google for 'laptop barebones'. They'll all be the original brands, Clevo, Compal, Asus, etc, and not the reseller brands, Sony, Dell, HP, etc. But it'll be the same thing and cost less. What you get with the big names is 1: a support phone line, 2: the exact same laptop with a brand name sticker strangers will respect you for being able to afford and, of course 3: Windows.

    4: Assurance that the operating system that you plan to install contains drivers for the hardware in the laptop. Is there a way to exclude laptops from pricewatch's results that contain a major component (e.g. accelerated video, WLAN, Bluetooth) with no */Linux support?