I've noticed something that appears to be consistent among laptop manufacturers and resellers. If you want a reasonably powerful laptop with an integrated Intel graphics video card, the laptop almost always comes with Vista Business/Ultimate. This is annoying because not only do Vista Business/Ultimate have no practical features a home user would use for work-related activities, it adds considerably to the cost of the laptop. If someone can name one feature, just one feature that a user would use in Vista Business/Ultimate for work-related stuff that they couldn't do within (or without) Vista Home Premium then I'd like to hear it.
I've even seen some laptops, Dell Canada, in particular, where Vista Home Premium 32bit is included in the price, but if you configure the laptop for more than 4GB of RAM, they force you to pay more for Vista Home Business 64bit. Like on the cheapest Studio 17 laptop. The only choice of OS is Vista Home Premium 32bit (included in Price) or Vista Ultimate 64bit (an extra $140) If you to try to continue with more than 4GB of RAM with Vista Home Premium you get the following notice...
I've come to accept that I'll have to get a laptop with Vista Home Premium, but now I see my choices are even more limited. It appears Vista Business/Ultimate and even XP Professional are being foisted on the marketplace. And the Ubuntu laptop that Dell Canada offers, the XPS M1330, is significantly higher (like hundreds of dollars more) than the equivalent Windows laptops. I'm not going to spend several hundred more just to get Ubuntu on a laptop when I'm going to re-install the OS myself anyway. Even if the Ubuntu laptop was a mere $100 more I would get it, but the XPS 1530 isn't even offered with Ubuntu.
It looks like we might have to wait another 10 years or so before we get some real choices for laptops in Canada.
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