2006-02-10 (金) の 08:15 +0000 に Paul Howarth さんは書きました: [...] > > Dell will also sell a PC with FreeDOS installed. It just may cost *more* > than one with Windows installed: Which, we suppose, is the reason for the desire for more direct support for Linux from the tier 1 PC suppliers. (The following is a bit of a ramble, not sure if it's worth raising the noise level for, but ...) I bought an AMD box from a local hardware integrator and parts shop called Pasokon Koubo. They have several models that they will sell sans OS on request. They don't directly support Linux, but they waited patiently while I tried Knoppix on the box at the store to check. They were also happy when I informed them I had succeeded in multi-booting FC and the three main BSDs on it. (Grub and two HDs makes that easy.) The box itself rang in about JPY 40,000, and I saved JPY 10,000 by refusing to pay the MStax. (My wife has mixed feelings about that, because we have no MS boxes in the house, and all her friends worry that she isn't going to be able to open up the documents they want to send her. Peer pressure.) However, I understand that I could, if I had looked around, have picked up a similar bare-bones box for a similar price with MSWxxx on it. Which means that Pasokon Koubo is paying a little extra for the privilege of selling hardware without the OS. There are small juku-style schools in Japan (clientelle under a hundred at any given time) that specialize in teaching people how to use computers. I have often pondered the wisdom of starting such a pasokon kyoushitsu and offering, in addition to the usual MS and not so usual Apple focused stuff, courses in which the students would build their own Linux or *BSD desktop or laptop boxes and learn to administer the box and use the software.
