It’s an ironic title, before anyone gets too excited…
I’m sourcing machines for a small office, looking for standard low-end machines, and I’ve been quite impressed with the willingness of hardware suppliers to install Linux. Of course I could do it myself, but I’d really like the supplier to do it on all the machines! The disappointments were the we recommend Windows XP from the big vendors, as well as supposedly discount stores such as Hi-Fi Corporation, who perhaps understandably, make their prices uncompetitive for anyone looking for a clean machine.
Examples include Computer Warehouse, offering a standard machine for R2700. You can add Windows XP for R800, making it a not-so cheap R3500, and it’s a good exercise, and probably sobering for most buyers, to see the price of the OS separately. Unfortunately Computer Warehouse would only install Impi Linux , which is a bit dated for my purposes, but quite an interesting choice, meaning that Impi are getting their marketing and distribution agreements in place. Now if Impi would get their long-promised distro, based on Ubuntu, out, it may be a different story.
Spy Computing, a small shop offering personal service were more than happy to install Ubuntu on their R3000 offering.
If anyone can suggest something better in Cape Town, let me know!
If you want a cheaper”machine contact the geeks at Frog Foot Networks. They install Ubuntu Linux by default. R2299.00 and just needs a monitor from what I can see.
The other two I mentioned include screens though, and Frogfoot’s offering comes to R3050 with the screen, which isn’t cheaper. Good to hear about another one installing Ubuntu though, it does seem to be the most popular distro for hardware retailers.