I just tried to see if I could order a laptop with Dell without Windows. So I went to the Dell Linux page. Which totally sucked. I’m using flashblock (since flash usually sucks), and the Dell Linux page has huge flash movies on them - the regular Dell site doesn’t.

Why for heavens sake does Dell use Flash on their Linux page? It’s not as if Linux users care about their fancy animations. On contrary, some will probably not have Flash installed, or filtered (like me). And some will be annoyed by not being able to copy and paste the product description from that pointless flash. Even more so: all one flash does is display a table. You know, that has been possible in HTML for like ever, absolutely no reason to use flash here. Oh, and their “large text” button doesn’t work either. Nor will screenreaders. Nor does google see the text in the flash.

Dell Linux page with flashblock

The reason you choose Linux is the reason you not choose Dell.

To me this is Dell displaying that they have no clue about Linux admins.

I still haven’t found, what I’m looking for - a lightweight notebook, with a high resolution display, and good battery life (i.e. no nvidia or ATI graphics, preferrably no built-in CD to save weight and size) - best candidates so far: Fujitsu Siemens P7120 and Samsung X11-T2300 Culesa. Sony Vaio VGN-TX2HP/B is interesting, but I still have some reservations against Sony (they try too hard to do tech lockin, e.g. memory stick; and a friend had bad service experiences, their Rootkit, GPL violations with InstantOn…) and it’s a bit too tiny for me.

[Update: Thinkpad X series is not an option for me, too low screen resolution and according to the specs low battery life; Apple MacBook isn’t an option because of their heat and battery issues, and I don’t like the hype around it and any other Apple product]