"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message

In article
, Arny
Krueger
wrote:
"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message

In article
, Arny
Krueger wrote:
"Keith G" wrote in message

Laurence Payne wrote:
On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:31:51 +0000, Keith G
wrote:

when I had 3 machines on the go, swapping stuff
between them, the Mac and the XP machine felt
faster, neater and generally less 'encumbered' than
the Vista machine!

You'll like Windows 7 then.


Unlikely - I have no plans to buy it!!

That's like saying that you don't intend to buy a new
PC for the next 5-7 years.

Especially since even if you don't want or use it,
most 'PC' sic hardware makers and retailers tend to
force you into paying for it regardless.

Dell has done a good job of maintaining the availability
of XP throughout the Vista catastrophe. HP as well,
perhaps. Their corporate clients demanded it.

I'm sure that is of interest to those who 'want' XP.
However some of us don't want/need/wish to have to pay
for or use any Windows OS of any version.

That's a choice you get to make.

So much for the 'free market' sic again. :-)

Windows 7 is going to be sold by the fact that it has
the definitive implementation of both 64 bit hardware
support and also virtual machines.

In the UK, Windows is mainly "sold by" the retailer/maker
attitude, "That's what the PC comes with, Sir. It is a
part of the package price. We don't sell the hardware
without it."

The US, perhaps being a more diverse place, has a number of examples of
retailers and manufactuers who aren't that narrow-minded.

You can perhaps choose XP rather than 7, but
what if you don't want either, or any version of Windows,
but want the hardware?

That's a choice you get to make.


Is that different in the USA?

I cited 2 examples, and there are others.

Do most 'PC' sic
retailers there stock most of their hardware with a
choice of Windows and Linux so buyers can compare and
don't have to pay for Windows if they don't want it -
just to get the hardware?


The market for PCs in the US does not support *that*.

Linux support is a niche market. If you ask around in the right places you
can obtain *bare* PCs, and you can also obtain PC's with *inux pre-loaded. I
believe that a large retailer in the US named Tiger Direct has off-the-shelf
*inux PCs for sale. I think that IBM sells them, but you have to buy their
services package. I think that a little sweet talk to Dell and HP might get
you what you want for a respectible price.

Is the same hardware then
always cheaper when you don't get Windows on it?

I am unaware of the details of that segment of the market. I just know it is
relatively small (meaning that it might be impressive on its own right but
gets dwarfed by the rest of the market), and it has non-trivial support. I
also know that my local office supply superstore won't go there. Truth is
someplace in-between.

This is veering OT, I suppose. But perhaps we can at
least get a strained link by noting that MacOS these days
is in some ways a commercial BSD distro IIUC. :-)

That would be no joke. That it runs on hardware that would be a PC aside
from some artificial roadblocks, is yet another triumph of commerce over
technical diversity.