I think the author means exactly what he says, which is that customers who want to have Linux preloaded on these machines must pay an additional fee of $20, whereas customers wanting an NT (or Win9x) preload pay an additional fee of $0. Since Dell doesn't market Optiplex systems without an OS, and since we don't know what M$ charges them per-machine for an OEM license for NTW, its hard to say how much the customer is getting overcharged for Linux. Safe to say not $200; probably more on the order of $30-$50, since the official RedHat distribution with docs would have cost them around $30 on the street anyway. The customer is only really out $200 in the unlikely event that after they get their Linux machine, they decide they really wanted NT all along and go out and spend $200 for a copy of NTW at CompUSA or wherever. An awful thought... --Kevin On Wed, 24 Mar 1999 10:57:48 -0500, Bob Easton wrote:
On 23 Mar 99, at 21:43, Fred A. Miller wrote:
<A HREF="http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/special/delllinux.html"><A HREF="http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/special/delllinux.html</A">http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/special/delllinux.html</A</A>> --
Quoting from that article (about Dell preloading Linux): "In order to get Linux preinstalled on their machines, users must foot a $20 fee (which is $20 more than a system with Windows NT preinstalled)." Is this for real? They expect someone to pay, in effect, close to $200 for Linux? Maybe the author misspoke. -Bob
-- To get out of this list, please send email to majordomo@suse.com with this text in its body: unsubscribe suse-linux-e Check out the SuSE-FAQ at <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/"><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/</A">http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/</A</A>> and the archive at <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html"><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html</A">http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html</A</A>>
-- To get out of this list, please send email to majordomo@suse.com with this text in its body: unsubscribe suse-linux-e Check out the SuSE-FAQ at <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/"><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/</A">http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/</A</A>> and the archive at <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html"><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html</A">http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html</A</A>>