THUFIR HAWAT schreef: > On 6/8/05, Zac Medico <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > ... > >>If your >>local store doesn't know maybe they will let you test >>with a livecd before you buy. >> >>Zac > > ... > > fantastic advice with regards to the live cd > > > -Thufir >
Sorry, I can't resist... That's one of the uses that a LiveCD is meant for, but the constraints placed around users' ability to think "outside the box" and for themselves completely blinded you to it. This highlights the synergy between software monopoly and hardware manufacture/distribution preventing the buyer from making an informed decision-- you can't test hardware in a store selling Windows PCs, without paying, taking the unit home and hoping it works. Of course, you *really* don't need to test it anyway, because, under Windows, the hardware supposedly "just works" (even when it doesn't, and when it doesn't it's usually supposedly your fault). This 'buying on spec' may be fine for a $25 ethernet card, but not for a $500 video card, and in fact, isn't *really* fine at all. But we've been rigorously trained to accept it as "the way it is". You wouldn't buy a car from someone who refused to let you take it for a test drive, would you? But the "acceptable standards" for the purchase of computing hardware and software are completely different from almost every other consumer product currently available. But now you are really free to get the information you need to make a proper decision for yourself. You are free to demand that the distributor accommodate your needs (if they won't let you test with the Live CD, take your money somewhere else). It takes some getting used to, but man, it's nice being outside that box (more rightfully a cage). It rains sometimes, but then again, quite often you get rainbows after. Holly -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
