m2bord's Journal: Talk about timing...

I was taking a break from my day job and I stumbled upon the latest article regarding Vista, it's shortcomings, and it's benefits.

http://it.slashdot.org/firehose.pl?id=495712&op=view

I have been looking for a new laptop now for a week and have come to the conclusion that I do not want Vista on my PC. The trouble is, it's next to impossible to get what you want from PC manufacturers. They push Vista and there is almost no other option.

Dell still provides XP on select laptops but there is the added punishment of having to pay almost $100 in state sales tax which I do not want to do either.

Yea...I know..I'm being difficult.

Look...if there is a laptop maker listening to me, "give the buyer a choice!" Let me decide what OS that I want on my new machine and if I can't figure it out, then force me to take Vista.

Why don't I want Vista? That's simple...I don't want a slow machine. I don't want the DRM. I don't want the networking woes that some of my clients and friends have reported to me. In short...I want XP, for now.

I can't use Linux on it because it's also going to be used by my girlfriend for some of her college assignments and her instructor insists on Microsoft Office products. So I'm stuck.

You know...it's easy to see how the state of computing got into the sorry state that it's in. There is virtually no choice in products. Sure there are many manufacturers and they are all selling the exact same products just in their own wrapping.

You'll find the same Turion and Dual Core Intel chips, the same ram, the same DVD burners, the same everything. You'll probably even get support from the same call center in Bangalore unless you pay extra for Gold support and then they might let you talk to someone in the United States.

I build my own desktops and it's so much cheaper than buying one preassembled. So why is it cost prohibitive for a person to do the same with a laptop?