[sclug] Cheap Tesco PC's (with Ubuntu Pre-Installed)

[alan c]

Ed Davies wrote:
> The bit that gave me pause for thought was:
> 
>    Accessories Included:    Relevant driver CD...
> 
> I hope that's just so you can set the machine up without
> a net connection to pull down some driver not on the
> standard distribution disk - not an indication that the
> machine uses components which need drivers not in the
> Ubuntu repositories.  Seems to rather defeat the object
> of buying a Linux machine if you need proprietary
> drivers.

My interpretation of 'Driver CD' is a ubuntu CD!

I bought a rather similar Esys machine a while ago from dabs (165 
ukpounds delivered) and it was certainly good value for money. It came 
with a distro installed (forget which) but it needed a reinstall and 
the graphics were set to a wrong resolution. At that time I got a 
strong impression that the pre intalled os was more of a disk image 
which was slapped on just for the record.

The support/warranty phone number did have a person at the other end 
when I made one enquiry, but I did not need to follow up against the 
warranty. However I later tried it as a test, and did not get any 
answer on later occasions. My conclusion is that if the Tesco PCs are 
purchased by real linux newcomers, then the tesco built in support 
(basic lowest cost warranty actions I guess) is probably unlikely to 
be such as to encourage further linux use. Unless that is, the 
customers get into contact with LUGs or Ubuntu UK discussions.
-- 
alan cocks
Kubuntu user#10391