Barebone Laptops

[caboose]

Hi. I have searched through many retail store and the only place I can find barebone laptops (Laptops with no software, just hardware) is online.

Does anyone know where I can find Barebone latops in retail stores in australia.

Any help would be appreciated

[Freston]

I don't know about the situation in Australia, but I had the same problem in the Netherlands. I bought one online in the end, there was no other way.

[Bemk]

The problem, when you want a bare bone machine, you need to contact the manufacturer through the store, where things tend to go wrong, already.

If things go well, you will either get a "No!" or a big bill for the "extra" effort. With Linux, it the bill will be even bigger. I wonder if this even legal, since they charge more for less.

[D-cat]

This is related to the myth of the Microsoft Tax.

This is also why many computers come with "crapware" pre-installed.

The idea is that a computer manufacturer has a set retail price for their hardware, which usually has some formula for it to maintain a certain profit margin. Then at the vendor, they gather up contracts from various software companies who pay to have their trialware crap pre-installed on these computers. Of course they need an OS, but MS doesn't charge very much for an OEM vendor license, I think it's like $10, so that's non-issue. All this crap that gets preinstalled offsets the price of the computer sometimes hundreds of dollars to something the typical consumer can afford, proliferating MS and crapware and selling more computers over-all... it's a win-win for all involved (assuming the consumer is smart enough to dump the crap immediately).

What happens when you order a computer with no OS? You're paying full price for the hardware.