[01:36] <ibeardslee> crossing fingers I may have throttled HP enough to do 'the right thing'
[01:43] <ojwb> knock 0.31$ off the price?
[01:43] <ojwb> or add it to the windows ones more likely!
[01:44] <ibeardslee> actually being able to point to a windows laptop saying I want that with freedos and knowing that it'll be $x less than the windows price
[01:45] <ajmitch> HP are such strong supporters of open source in some areas, and seemingly quite against it in others
[01:45] <ibeardslee> currently waiting to discover if it is just the 'business' range, how much 'x' will be and if I have spoken too soon
[01:47] <ibeardslee> ajmitch: as it was explained to me that NZ is just a small market
[01:48] <ajmitch> and the number of people who'd want a non-standard install is a tiny fraction of a small market?
[01:48] <ibeardslee> peronally I don't accept that .. well I accept that we are a small market, but in the whole interweb thing .. it's a global market
[01:49] <ibeardslee> if something is available in the US, there should minimal reasons for restricting them to that market
[01:49] <ajmitch> right, but global market doesn't mean that they can ignore that they are shipping physical products
[01:50] <ajmitch> it'd be more of an internal company issue, that they probably have a different section of the company dealing with asia-pacific
[01:50] <ibeardslee> eg why can't we have this here .. http://icanhaz.com/hp-8540w
[01:51] <ibeardslee> ajmitch: it probably costs the same to ship from the US as it does from where ever in asia the build the machines that end up in nz
[02:25] <lifeless> ibeardslee: so the limits are support, marketing material, warehousing, presales knowledge
[02:26] <lifeless> ibeardslee: dell are the same, eu and us they'll sell with Ubuntu, but its rare elsewhere.
[02:26] <ibeardslee> limits with support .. meh, all HP support goes via somewhere else anyway
[02:27] <ibeardslee> marketing material .. meh, the marketing will be coming from the OSS communities when people ask where they can get laptops without Windows
[02:28] <ibeardslee> presales knowledge .. meh .. see above
[02:29] <lifeless> ibeardslee: thats your opinion; the suits opinion is what matters.
[02:32] <ibeardslee> sure it's my opinion. but my opinion of what the community may be able to do is better than what a suit thinks is reasonable.
[02:33] <ibeardslee> there is much too much "but the suits opinions" etc going on
[02:34] <ibeardslee> if we let the suits opinions manage what we can do, we'd all be running windows with iPhones and the OSS industry/community wouldn't exist
[02:40] <ojwb> ibeardslee: Bdale Garbee is a DD and works for HP - might be worth talking to him if you get stuck
[02:41] <ojwb> apparently it's their policy to make sure stuff things work under Linux, though I'm not sure how official that is
[02:41] <ajmitch> he's the linux CTO at HP
[02:41]  * ojwb didn't know that, but I knew he was fairly senior
[02:42] <ajmitch> I believe HP even had some netbook with an ubuntu derivative, and a custom HP UI
[02:44] <ibeardslee> ojwb: from my experience this issue is not getting HP gear working with Linux, but more the ease of getting it without the Legacy OS in the first place.
[02:44] <ojwb> sure, I'm just saying that there is at least some internal pro-linux-ness
[02:45] <ibeardslee> with them supporting LCA, there is bound to be
[02:45] <ibeardslee> with them supporting LCA, yes there is
[02:45] <ojwb> true
[02:46] <ajmitch> & sponsoring a number of debian machines
[02:46] <ibeardslee> but that seems to be the server end .. I'm working from workstation, end user end
[18:43] <ibeardslee> morning
[18:51] <Atamira> mornin
[18:54] <ibeardslee> so it seems the suits saw the light
[18:55] <ibeardslee> We/HP can offer you a FreeDOS version of any 'commercial'
[18:55] <ibeardslee> Windows desktop or notebook on our website.
[18:55] <ibeardslee> The saving would be $200 off the list price of a Windows 7
[18:55] <ibeardslee> Professional SKU
[18:55] <Atamira> yay ?
[18:55] <ibeardslee> This option would not be available on Consumer items because
[18:55] <ibeardslee> these products are not configurable using the CTO tool
[18:56] <ibeardslee> That's where 'We' = Ascent
[18:56] <ibeardslee> I believe that deal should alos be available through other resellers/retailers
[18:57] <ibeardslee> Atamira: Yes, that is a 'yay' :)
[18:57] <Atamira> yay !
[18:57] <Atamira> tho hp..mrrr
[18:59] <ibeardslee> I'm going to be asking if HP can do a press release (in conjunction with Ascent? and NZOSS) about this.
[19:00] <Atamira> if its good publicity for you
[19:00] <Atamira> why not
[19:01] <Atamira> my company does all its PC stuff through Dell
[19:01]  * ibeardslee doesn't work for Ascent or HP
[19:01] <Atamira> then who is ascent?
[19:02] <ibeardslee> I had bought Dell at a previous job, but after massive fail on their part I just won't go there again
[19:02] <ibeardslee> http://www.ascent.co.nz/
[19:03] <ibeardslee> they've been the poor people stuck between HP and a raving fanatic
[19:04] <Atamira> ahh
[19:04] <Atamira> probably why i hadnt heard of them before
[19:25] <ajmitch> morning
[19:25] <ajmitch> ascent are reasonably well known as an online retailer
[19:26] <ajmitch> they've generally been pretty decent over the years
[20:10] <Atamira> do they carter to the general public or mainly to commercial owners?
[20:10] <Atamira> sorry..commercial users
[20:11] <ajmitch> general public
[20:11] <ibeardslee> yeah, we don't even get a discout through them
[20:20] <Atamira> do they have a store in auckland?
[20:20] <Atamira> i have 4 local pc places
[20:22] <thumper> morning
[20:22] <ajmitch> they appear to have only a wellington store, coincidentally in catalyst house
[20:23] <ajmitch> & they don't hold stock there, it's pretty much just an online business
[20:28] <mwhudson> morning
[20:32] <Atamira> nite all
[20:32] <Atamira> i love working graveyard shifts
[20:39] <karora> chilts: Just signing up for AppsDNS and found it odd that the 'sign up' buttons on the front page weren't links.