I recently purchased an HP tx2500z tablet PC, and I love it. Unfortunately, Vista was the only OS option, and by removing it, I would void my warranty, according to HP. I removed it anyway, and installed Ubuntu on it right away, but not without many problems. See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=845911
I hate HP, from their over packaging (see http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/07/18/32-pages-of-paper-in-17-box...) to their horrible customer service (When I requested a refund for Vista, as described in the Vista EULA, my HP case manager Kenneth became extremely angry with me and told me I had voided my warranty by removing Vista).
I never wanted to purchase this tablet from HP, but they were selling exactly what I needed for a reasonable price (1050 USD for Turion x2 2.4GHz, 4 GB RAM, Radeon HD 3200 graphics, etc.) I would gladly pay more for a Dell system with Ubuntu preinstalled. Just take a look at what you can do with a touchscreen and compiz:
What do you say Dell? How about a Puma based, Ubuntu running, tablet PC?
That's a pretty nice demo. We haven't really done much investigation into touch yet with Linux, but we'll take a look, as I'm not sure what the maturity level is right now for touch in Linux.
That would be an awesome idea. I think if that was configured and marketed correctly, you might really have something there. Let's put it this way: Apple can't do that. (of course, by "can't" I mean "hasn't yet and hasn't shown any intentions to", but until that time comes, it's the same as can't to the consumer, right?)
I thought apple did some of that stuff with the iPhone. Well, the shuffling part anyways. None the less, Apple doesn't do a lot of that stuff as far as I know.
Apple's Mac is coded in Unix, right. Isn't Linux a Unix based system as well. I think it would be nice to see how well Mac and Linux can talk to each other, especially with touch screen. Mac has multi touch screen on iPhone, while MS brought out this huge Giganto-normous table and called it . . . . the screen or something stupid. Like people want to buy Galaga again, only with multi touch tech. ROFLOL.
The point being, Linux should be friends with Mac, and Dell should too.
Apple is based off BSD, but then they take that and put on some additional modifications. And Apple has a history of taking from Linux/BSD, but giving little to nothing back. They obey the letter of their Unix related licenses when swiping code, but there are some that feel that they are trampling on the spirit of the code they use.
In any case, in theory, Mac and Linux should work well together, and in most cases they do. But, having been in a programming class recently with a mixture of Linux and Mac machines, the Linux people kept having to help the Mac people because many times even the simplest things, like remotely logging into a server and transferring files, or using certain program libraries, would work flawlessly on Linux but have problems when identical or equivalent steps were performed on a Mac. I've never owned a Mac, and I don't know exactly why things kept messing up in that class. I can't say that those problems would be universal, but it was very strange. Some Linux people tend to think that OSX is just an expensive crippled rip off of their operating system. I'm not going to take a side on that here, but if that class is in any way representative of OSX, I can see how someone might come to that conclusion.
OSX and Linux aren't really compatible due to the series of GUI API's that Apple has (Cocoa, Quartz, etc.). The non-GUI system is compatible with FreeBSD (Because it _is_ FreeBSD), but that's it.
@mgrunde "(When I requested a refund for Vista, as described in the Vista EULA, my HP case manager Kenneth became extremely angry with me and told me I had voided my warranty by removing Vista)."
I hope you escalated to his manager and/or took them to small claims court after that happened.
The process of getting your Windows EULA refund through small claims courts is outlined here: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7040 and is actually simpler and probably quicker than going through HP's customer support. If you're in california, at least; you take them to small claims court; the court clerk can help getting the papers served; and even if HP shows up, you'll almost surely win because the EULA's very clear. However in practice we've never heard of a case where they show up; so you win by default. In the end you have a court judgement that HP will neither ignore nor yell at you about.
If you try asking for a Vista refund with Dell, play a game by counting how many transfers to a manager or other department it takes before your call is suddenly dropped in transfer.
HP's refunding $200 now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (pics of the check and the whole transcript with HP on that link)
@laptoplinux: "If you try asking for a Vista refund with Dell, play a game by counting how many transfers to a manager or other department it takes before your call is suddenly dropped in transfer."
Seems the most efficient is exactly 1 transfer to a manger. Take notes on that call. In the remote chance that the manger says yes, great, you're done. If not, take the small claims court path. You'll win, since the EULA demands the refund be given. Then it's just one more letter and you get your check.
Thanks for all of the helpful ideas for getting my refund. Unfortunately, because of HP's nonexistant linux support for personal computers, I was forced to reinstall Vista to make the computer usable, so I no longer qualify to have my license refunded. We are making progress in getting Ubuntu to work on the machine, but it is still far from usable in a production environment (see the ubuntuforums link in my fist paragraph).
I never plan on buying an HP again, but if for some reason I do, I will definitely demand my refund and take them to small claims if necessary.
Thank you again. Keep promoting this, so I don't even have to ask for a Vista refund on my next tablet!
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