I'm going to buy a Dell laptop. On their website you can customize the laptop fairly much, including operating system and office package.
But, suprise suprise, on the menus you can just choose between Microsoft products, and 'none at all' is not an option.
So I phoned their sales department. 'Why can't I deselect Windows and Office?', I asked. The drone at the other end told me that virtually everyone wanted Windows on their laptops, so it wasn't there. So I told him that I was not one of those 'virtually everyone', and didn't want it.
'No can do', he told me. They apparantly had a deal with Microsoft, which required them to ship -all- computers with Windows.
I didn't quite believe it. I live in Norway, and I've always believed that our laws is more consumer-friendly than what's the situation in the US.
So I asked him if it really was legal. He didn't know, but the one thing he _could_ tell me was that without that agreement, the boxes 'virtually everyone' bought (including Windows, that is), would be so expensive that they wouldn't be able to compete other laptop-makers.
So, there I am, with no other option than buying Windows and Office lisences I won't be using anyway.
But then one thing occured to me. Nobody can _force_ me to accept the EULA that comes with Microsoft's products. So if I buy my laptop with Windows and Office, and refuse to accept the EULA, I should be able to return the software to Microsoft and get my money back. That's how it _should_ be, at least.
Can somebody confirm that the EULA gives you this possibility? Have anyone tried this? Any success?
I will certainly try my best to kick up a fuss if I can't.. write to all consumer-rights organizations and consumer TV programs. I think it's worth the effort, don't you?
As you say, it is very easy to get non-US software, add a line in sources.list, and never think about it again. However, there are a lot of other applications where crypto isn't needed for the package to work.
For example, you can get 'lynx' from the main server. If you need https support, just fetch the 'lynx-ssl' package from the non-US server.
But what if the maintainer is from the USA? I suppose that would prohibit him from uploading such a package to the non-US server.
Compare the LDAP utilities. There is no cryptographic version of them in the Debian archive. Ben Collins couldn't upload them.
Of course, I do some magic with stunnel to get my passwords encrypted anyway, but it's not the best way to go.
And the LDAP packages are just an example. How many other packages out there would be built with the (optional) crypto support, if they could be uploaded in the US main archive?
Excellent idea! Then, when I have to leave home (the computer room), and do evil social stuff, like going to an opera with my "in-law" family, I could do a "rmmod hearing" or some such...
There are no OEMs that provide uptime guarantees for Linux, unlike Windows NT where Compaq, Data General, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Unisys provide 99.9 percent system-level uptime guarantees for Windows NT-based servers. (emphasis mine).
How can they be bragging about this?
Let me do some math.
There's 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours a day, and 365 days a year.
60 * 24 * 365 =
525600 minutes per year.
Right. If there's 99.9 percent uptime, that would mean 0.1 percent downtime. How many minutes per year is that?
525600 * 0.1 / 100 =
525.6 minutes downtime per year.
Now I'm assuming that a NT server need 3 minutes to boot (at least it does at school). Let's find out how many reboots is needed to fulfill M$' "promise" of 0.1% downtime.
525.6 / 3 =
175.2 reebots per year
Now I'm starting to make my point here. But just let me take one more calculation here (assuming that there's 365 days in a year;-):
365 / 175.2 =
2,08 days between every reeboot
I'd even think that my Debian box has better stability than that (and it's woody aka unstable:-).
When you install it, it brings up a system onto a ramdisk. You have to partition your HD's, format, and mount you partitions yourself (including your source partition or cdrom).
Then you start the installer. Or perhaps I should say "the sorry excuse for one". You are now at a shell-like prompt with a few commands. One lists all the packages available, and the status (will this be installed or not). So you list all the packages, sees that for example Binutils is not selected. Then you issue the command for selection (was it S??), f.x. "S binutils". Repeat the listing and selection part until happy.
Then you issue a command which unpacks all the packages to/mnt (you better have mounted a partition there!).
That's all. Now you chroot to/mnt , configure away, and if you want, make a new kernel and reboot the system.
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I'm going to buy a Dell laptop. On their website you can customize the laptop fairly much, including operating system and office package.
.. write to all consumer-rights organizations and consumer TV programs. I think it's worth the effort, don't you?
But, suprise suprise, on the menus you can just choose between Microsoft products, and 'none at all' is not an option.
So I phoned their sales department. 'Why can't I deselect Windows and Office?', I asked. The drone at the other end told me that virtually everyone wanted Windows on their laptops, so it wasn't there. So I told him that I was not one of those 'virtually everyone', and didn't want it.
'No can do', he told me. They apparantly had a deal with Microsoft, which required them to ship -all- computers with Windows.
I didn't quite believe it. I live in Norway, and I've always believed that our laws is more consumer-friendly than what's the situation in the US.
So I asked him if it really was legal. He didn't know, but the one thing he _could_ tell me was that without that agreement, the boxes 'virtually everyone' bought (including Windows, that is), would be so expensive that they wouldn't be able to compete other laptop-makers.
So, there I am, with no other option than buying Windows and Office lisences I won't be using anyway.
But then one thing occured to me. Nobody can _force_ me to accept the EULA that comes with Microsoft's products. So if I buy my laptop with Windows and Office, and refuse to accept the EULA, I should be able to return the software to Microsoft and get my money back. That's how it _should_ be, at least.
Can somebody confirm that the EULA gives you this possibility? Have anyone tried this? Any success?
I will certainly try my best to kick up a fuss if I can't
--
Tore
I don't think this is a bad idea.
As you say, it is very easy to get non-US software, add a line in sources.list, and never think about it again. However, there are a lot of other applications where crypto isn't needed for the package to work.
For example, you can get 'lynx' from the main server. If you need https support, just fetch the 'lynx-ssl' package from the non-US server.
But what if the maintainer is from the USA? I suppose that would prohibit him from uploading such a package to the non-US server.
Compare the LDAP utilities. There is no cryptographic version of them in the Debian archive. Ben Collins couldn't upload them.
Of course, I do some magic with stunnel to get my passwords encrypted anyway, but it's not the best way to go.
And the LDAP packages are just an example. How many other packages out there would be built with the (optional) crypto support, if they could be uploaded in the US main archive?
Also, this confirms that the 2.5 roadmap is fairly accurate. In yesterday's update, ALSA was listed as "ready [for inclusion]".
Other goodies are listed as "ready", are:
In addition, things like SGI's XFS, LVM v2, and a new VM from Rik van Riel (with rmap) is in beta and likely to enter "ready" soon.
Check it out for yourself, it's very interesting stuff. :-)
--
Tore Anderson
My roommate has one of those cards, and it works. Don't know if all the fancy features is supported, though.
--
Tore Anderson
Something's wrong with your logic, my friend.
crond@undernet
Norwegian Linux Community
Tore
crond@undernet
Norwegian Linux Community
Excellent idea! Then, when I have to leave home (the computer room), and do evil social stuff, like going to an opera with my "in-law" family, I could do a "rmmod hearing" or some such...
crond@undernet
Norwegian Linux Community
How can they be bragging about this?
Let me do some math.
There's 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours a day, and 365 days a year.
Right. If there's 99.9 percent uptime, that would mean 0.1 percent downtime. How many minutes per year is that?
Now I'm assuming that a NT server need 3 minutes to boot (at least it does at school). Let's find out how many reboots is needed to fulfill M$' "promise" of 0.1% downtime.
Now I'm starting to make my point here. But just let me take one more calculation here (assuming that there's 365 days in a year ;-):
I'd even think that my Debian box has better stability than that (and it's woody aka unstable :-).
crond@undernet
Norwegian Linux Community
When you install it, it brings up a system onto a ramdisk. You have to partition your HD's, format, and mount you partitions yourself (including your source partition or cdrom).
Then you start the installer. Or perhaps I should say "the sorry excuse for one". You are now at a shell-like prompt with a few commands. One lists all the packages available, and the status (will this be installed or not). So you list all the packages, sees that for example Binutils is not selected. Then you issue the command for selection (was it S??), f.x. "S binutils". Repeat the listing and selection part until happy.
Then you issue a command which unpacks all the packages to /mnt (you better have mounted a partition there!).
That's all. Now you chroot to /mnt , configure away, and if you want, make a new kernel and reboot the system.
Good luck ;-)
crond@undernet
Norwegian Linux Community