[nylug-talk] How to get a Windows tax refund

[alex at pilosoft.com]

On Sat, 6 Jan 2007, Jay Sulzberger wrote:

> I do not know whether Dell sells any home computer without a Microsoft
> OS.  Certainly they do not sell one at a lower price than the same
> computer with a Microsoft OS already installed.  On the Dell website,
> only Microsoft OSes are advertised.
False.

If you want to rail against windows tax, rail against someone other than 
Dell. Dell very much sells OS-less desktops (under "small business"). In 
fact, its right on the website:

http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/desktops?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

"Open source desktops"
 
As far as price - it varies. Often enough, the promotions that are applied
to windows servers are not applied to os-less servers on website.  
Occasionally, you can call your phone sales rep and they might budge,
particularly for a large order (say, 50 machines). Currently, os-less 
desktops are 30$ cheaper than corresponding windows machine. Compare:
http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/optix_n?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~ck=anavml
http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/optix?~ck=anav

Not every desktop is available OS-less, currently, only OptiPlex are 
(although, they did have dimension os-less at one point). 

I know, we own a large number of Optiplex boxes that are OS-less.