(There was a thread with a similar question on the matter back in 2003:
http://search.gmane.org/?query=linux+laptop+windows+refund&group=gmane.linux.region.israel
yet there was no answer in it. The thread includes an interesting
pointer to http://www.netcraft.com.au/geoffrey/toshiba.html about a guy
who once had gotten a refund from Toshiba, but this was long ago and far
away (practically, on the other side of the world)).
Right now my wife is planning to buy a laptop from a research budget,
and she is going to use Linux only on it. The university department IT
help desk folks made some inquiries with the suppliers they usually work
with, and suggested a particular make/model given her computing needs
and their own hardware support experience (specifically, an IBM/Lenovo
T43 laptop). I see a lot of success linux installation reports about
this platform out there, so the only question that remains is how to get
rid of the "Microsoft tax" spending from the grant. (Nothing has been
bought so far.)
The supplier contacted IBM and said that they can't get any credit back
from the IBM for the returned windows. The university folks, of course,
are checking other suppliers meanwhile, but if they all in the end have
similar agreements with IBM, I am afraid the result will be the same.
Does anyone have an idea how to proceed, based on successful experience?
If this has been done in the context of the Israeli higher education,
the better. I know that in general IBM is supposed to be linux-friendly,
given their investment in linux, and the fact that they do sell some
linux pre-loaded laptops, so maybe there is a way to just buy it with
windows and get a refund directly from IBM? Is there any law in Israel
that one can use?
Or, as an alternative, does anybody have a specific supplier
recommendation for either T43 or a comparable linux-friendly laptop,
somebody in Israel that would be prepared to work with the University
and be willing to sell w/o Windows?
VKh
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