laptops sold with free software

[Marcos Marado]

Hi there,

In somewhat a reply to this month's FSFE newsletter, regarding avoiding
Microsoft tax:

" - How can you avoid the Microsoft tax when buying a new laptop? Kevin
Keijzer documented some tips and tricks on how to buy a new
laptop[33] which is a nice follow-up on last months test of a
preinstalled GNU/Linux laptop from Dell[34]. Help us in gathering
more information on laptops without Microsoft tax in our wiki[35]. "

I didn't have an wiki account, and created one but it seems that it needs to
be manually approved, so here's some info via e-mail (and please someone put
it on the wiki):

Unlike what transpires on that blog post, you can buy some laptops with
GNU/Linux on a regular shop in some European countries, including Portugal. We
have been allways one or two different choices on the shelves for a couple of
years now. This models are usually also sold in some (but not all) other
countries with the same sofware. Nowadays we actually have three
"international brands' laptops" to choose from (but they're all variants of
the same):

ASUS X201E-KX133
ASUS X201E-KX134
ASUS X201E-KX135

Asus has been, indeed, the best laptop vendor in Portugal in this regard the
last few years.

We also have on our shelves INSYS WV2251ELQL, and there's allways several
INSYS laptops with GNU/Linux, but not allways do they manage to have them on
the usual laptop-selling shops. INSYS is a Portuguese brand, and I don't know
if they sell on or to other countries.

PS - just to be sure about ASUS' models nowadays, I did a search for X201E on
the web, and the first result was this model on amazon.com... with Ubuntu.

Best regards,

[Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos]

Post by Marcos Marado
Unlike what transpires on that blog post, you can buy some laptops with
GNU/Linux on a regular shop in some European countries, including Portugal.

The situation in Greece has pretty much changed the market in that
aspect. From a very quick calculation it seems that around 1/3 of the
laptops in a popular shop in Greece [0] are now sold either with some
distribution of Linux or FreeDOS preinstalled. I don't know how much
they actually sell, but before 2010 it was almost impossible to find
such a laptop.

[0].
http://www.e-shop.gr/search_main.phtml?table=PER&category=%D6%CF%D1%C7%D4%CF%C9+%D5%D0%CF%CB%CF%C3%C9%D3%D4%C5%D3&filter-6281=1&filter-6282=1

regards,
Nikos

[Michael Kesper]

Hi,

Post by Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos
The situation in Greece has pretty much changed the market in that
aspect. From a very quick calculation it seems that around 1/3 of the
laptops in a popular shop in Greece [0] are now sold either with some
distribution of Linux or FreeDOS preinstalled. I don't know how much
they actually sell, but before 2010 it was almost impossible to find
such a laptop.

Are there Linux user groups rising?
I hope not all of those Laptops get infected with a dubious windows
license. :)

Another supported alternative seems to be chromebooks which are even for
a good part supported by Coreboot:
http://www.coreboot.org/Chromebooks

Best wishes
Michael

[Stephane Ascoet]

Post by Michael Kesper
Hi,

Post by Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos
The situation in Greece has pretty much changed the market in that
aspect. From a very quick calculation it seems that around 1/3 of the
laptops in a popular shop in Greece [0] are now sold either with some
distribution of Linux or FreeDOS preinstalled. I don't know how much
they actually sell, but before 2010 it was almost impossible to find
such a laptop.

Are there Linux user groups rising?
I hope not all of those Laptops get infected with a dubious windows
license. :)

Hi, yes, I'm amazed too. I don't think it's the same situation in france. Is this related with the social and economic sink of Greece?

[Tobias Platen]

Post by Stephane Ascoet

Post by Michael Kesper
Hi,

Post by Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos
The situation in Greece has pretty much changed the market in that
aspect. From a very quick calculation it seems that around 1/3 of the
laptops in a popular shop in Greece [0] are now sold either with some
distribution of Linux or FreeDOS preinstalled. I don't know how much
they actually sell, but before 2010 it was almost impossible to find
such a laptop.

Are there Linux user groups rising?
I hope not all of those Laptops get infected with a dubious windows
license. :)

Hi, yes, I'm amazed too. I don't think it's the same situation in
france. Is this related with the social and economic sink of Greece?

I baught my laptop at https://www.thinkpenguin.com/. A Company Where
Freedom Matters.

Tobias Platen

[Immanuel Giulea]

You can find the
ASUS 1015E-DS03
on newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231067

249.99 comes with Ubuntu.


Immanuel

Post by Tobias Platen

Post by Stephane Ascoet

Post by Michael Kesper
Hi,

Post by Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos
The situation in Greece has pretty much changed the market in that
aspect. From a very quick calculation it seems that around 1/3 of the
laptops in a popular shop in Greece [0] are now sold either with some
distribution of Linux or FreeDOS preinstalled. I don't know how much
they actually sell, but before 2010 it was almost impossible to find
such a laptop.

Are there Linux user groups rising?
I hope not all of those Laptops get infected with a dubious windows
license. :)

Hi, yes, I'm amazed too. I don't think it's the same situation in
france. Is this related with the social and economic sink of Greece?

I baught my laptop at https://www.thinkpenguin.com/. A Company Where
Freedom Matters.
Tobias Platen
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[Nikos Roussos]

Post by Stephane Ascoet

Post by Michael Kesper
Hi,

Post by Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos
The situation in Greece has pretty much changed the market in that
aspect. From a very quick calculation it seems that around 1/3 of the
laptops in a popular shop in Greece [0] are now sold either with some
distribution of Linux or FreeDOS preinstalled. I don't know how much
they actually sell, but before 2010 it was almost impossible to find
such a laptop.

Are there Linux user groups rising?
I hope not all of those Laptops get infected with a dubious windows
license. :)

Hi, yes, I'm amazed too. I don't think it's the same situation in france. Is this related with the social and economic sink of Greece?

Probably yes. Although, as Nikos mentioned, we don't know the sell rates
of these laptops. I guess that most people would stay with the
pre-installed OS before thinking of changing it to something else.

Linux user groups are declining here (like most of the Europe I think),
in favor of Free Software and Free Culture communities that emerge
around Hackerspaces :)

[Matthias Kirschner]

Hi Marcos,

Post by Marcos Marado
I didn't have an wiki account, and created one but it seems that it needs to
be manually approved, so here's some info via e-mail (and please someone put

Is it now approved? So could you add the information? Else I'll have to
investigate what went wrong.

Regards,
Matthias