If you are concerned about paying the Microsoft tax on new gear then look no further.
http://www.ebuyer.com/363468-zoostorm-laptop-7873-9033
I have seen a few desktops sold without Operating System but this is the first laptop I come across.
It appears that there seems to be a growing trend for this. Lets hope that they will make enough sales
to enable them to continue down this path.
It’s about time!
Everytime I go into a PCWorld or Comet I love winding the employees up by asking them questions. One of my favourite is;
“If I don’t want the hard drive with this laptop will you knock the price down?”
To which I normally get confused looks or comments such as “but how will it work?”
I also ask them how much they charge to delete Windows and install a far more superior OS. I end up walking out crying with laughter at their stupidity.
I will be glad when I can buy a laptop or desktop anywhere without having software pre-installed. The first thing I do with any new laptop is wipe it and start from fresh.
@ glitch … you’re just sick, sadistic, and cruel 
@ SeZo … I had spotted that a few weeks ago, and though I’d LOVE to see more of this, I don’t actually think that Zoostorm is particularly cheap for the spec.
[EDIT]
Whoa hold on, is that 8Gb of RAM I spot, I’m sure it was 2Gb the last time I looked … OK, changed my mind
It actually looks quite nice too.
@Mark - We all know you do the same!
I don’t think the Zoostorm is that bad. When I ordered my latest laptop I modified it online so it was custom built and I had the choice of not including an OS. I think there are a few websites/companies which do this but I would like to see it move to the high street. This is only because I have some days where I just CAN NOT wait to get my hands on some new gadgets!
I’ll be happy when the 3D printer is perfected so I can print out my new laptop…
Hey, I didn’t say I wasn’t sick, sadistic, and cruel too … sometimes it’s just too much fun to ignore 
It is too much fun!
One of the funniest moments I had I wasn’t even trying to trip them up!
I was in PCWorld and needed some DDR3 RAM for my brothers computer. I couldn’t be bothered looking around so I went straight up to the desk and asked where they keep their DDR3 Memory. The lad confidently told me they didn’t have any and apologised. Directly opposite the counter not 5 feet away was a rack of RAM, which I noticed when I turned around. I immediately saw the stuff I needed, picked it up and turned around. I hadn’t even moved! I said I would like to purchase “this DDR3 Memory” and the poor lad didn’t even click.
God knows what would of happened if I had asked him a real question!!
Jeez, that’s a new approach to sales … not one I think that will take off though.
Their normal response is to try sell you either some RAM that won’t fit … as in, “this 72 pin EDO SIMM will do sir” … or try to sell you a completely unrelated item that’s the “special of the day”.
I guess my point was not necessarily the spec of the machine (although the 8gb ram helped) but the off the shelf availability of the same without pre-installed OS.
Everytime I go into a PCWorld or Comet I love winding the employees up by asking them questions.I use that line as a over-friendly sales assistant repellent. All you have to do is ask, have they got any Linux PC/Laptops and they disapear as quickly as they turned up.
Yeah I totally agree with you on that.
I use that line as a over-friendly sales assistant repellent. All you have to do is ask, have they got any Linux PC/Laptops and they disapear as quickly as they turned up.
I spent an hour once trying to explain to one of these numptys that you can’t just buy Linux and install it like Windows. He did seem quite interrested when I mentioned Linux but he couldn’t understand what a distro was or why you would need so many different ones. I didn’t even bother trying to explain GNOME, KDE etc…
My point was (originally, when it was being sold with 2GB RAM), that unless they are significantly less than similarly spec’ed machines with Windows on …
a) it’s futile
and
b) people just won’t “get it”
I say “get it”, because someone I did a job for the other day was under the impression that he’d never paid for Windows … “it came free on the PC” :
I said Linux was free … he said “so is Windows, I’ve never paid for it … it came free on the computer”.
I said… :o >:( 
: 
… then gave up!!!
No one can be that stupi… oh wait there!
I’m glad I wasn’t there, I probably would of slapped him and taken his computer off him.
Just to add to the twisted mind cruelty of abusing PCworld / Comet employees, I walked into Curries today, and had a look around the computers and laptops. EVERYTHING was Windows 7.
The lad came up to me and he says, “can I help you sir?” and with me being “in the know” and having such a sick mind I asked him, “Do you have any PC’s / Laptops that come with Ubuntu?”
He looked at me for 5 secs, very blanked out and then replied “What’s that?”, “What’s it called?” I thought, ugh! You call yourself a sales rep!
So I turned round and I said, “Ubuntu, does any of your PC’s come with U-BUN-TU!!!?”
Again, he blanked out and asked “What’s that?!” “A music band or something?” and then I pissed myself.
A music band really? How thick are these guys?
So again I turned around and said, “It’s a Linux distro.”
By this point he was so confused he turned round to his colleague and asked, “Have you ever heard of Ubuntu?” “I’ve never heard of it…”
His colleague turns round and says “Nope, never heard of that, what is it?” So again, I explain that it’s a Linux distro…
They both look at each other confused, you should’ve seen their faces. I could help but laugh. After they’ve finally stopped looking at each other, the guy you originally approached me says, “We have Windows 7. It’s simple, and fast.”
Then I thought - “hmm, should I cut him, or shouldn’t I?” … I cut him.
So I said, “Windows 7, pfft. Linux is securer, faster & simpler than Windows will ever be…” and then walked off.
The guy was left dazed, whilst I pissed myself laughing.
I love being cruel, you get such a kick out of it. I only went in to check what the prices for HDD’s where… they didn’t have ANY HDD’s. Weird or what?
They do make themselves easy targets :
I think the HDD shortage caused by the Thai floods has eased but still isn’t completely over.
There seems to be conflicting ideas on when it will be over:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/HDD-IDC-shortage-supply-thailand,14232.html
with some saying there will be a surpluss this year … others saying the shortage will run into 2013
Prices stabilised a while ago, so I suppose supply can’t be that bad, but they are still slightly more expensive than this time last year … how much of that is the retailers milking the situation, I don’t know.