Re: [ossig] Windows Refund ?

["TM Tan (aka Meng)" <tmtan@tm.net.my>]

Hi Uwe 

> I'd be too curious to know where the iMAC is much cheaper than a - let's
> say - DELL Inspiron 8200.

I'm not certain but I don't think the prices are all that far apart...besides the highest model 
iMac has a nice DVD writer which would add cost significantly to any machine

> On top of that: MAC *is* proprietary and doesn't run FreeBSD.

yes that is true, nothing beats the *hardware* openness of *generic* Intel desktop 
platforms....however when it comes to *branded* hardware, suddenly this openness is largely 
curtailed, almost all branded PCs have proprietary motherboards (not to forget BIOSes) 
which don't conform to ATX formfactor standards....ie custom designed to fit their custom 
casings. I have assembled all my PCs after my very first one in the early 90s...rather than buy 
one from a name brand.....you eliminate the MS tax and the machines are generic enough to 
keep upgrading...I only had to change major components when going from the old AT form 
factor to ATX.

when it comes to laptops and notebooks the intel ones are as much  proprietary as any apple 
notebook, you can't interchange major components with other vendors notebooks regardless 
of platform, intel, amd, ppc etc so that's not important to me anyway

As for Freebsd...the PPC port is in progress, perhaps progress will accelerate now that 
darwin source code is available (for peeking that is :).....and there is always opendarwin to 
borrow from.
Meanwhile Darwin is a close enough substitute to freebsd and infinitely better than windows 
anyway and the hardware accelerated Aqua is much nicer than X :)

> Your alternative is close to the one from Microsoft, COMPAQ and DELL.

and pay the MS tax for stuff you don't use ?  Does anyone know how much an OEM windows 
license costs ? 

Cheers

Meng


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