I wrote a few days ago about Averatec not supplying Windows install CDs – their customer support guy told me this morning to send the laptop in for service: still under warranty and they would install a new disk with Windows installed.

No thanks. Ubuntu Linux was an easy install, everything works, and large code builds, etc. run faster for me under Linux than under Windows XP. I do wish that I could occasionally dual boot into Windows XP, but so it goes. I now have one Linux laptop, one high end Windows XP desktop PC, and three older Macs. Funny thing is that there is not a huge difference between developing Java (IntelliJ and ant builds) and Ruby on these three different operating systems.

The Averatec laptop has great hardware at a low price – too bad that they don’t sell a version without Windows for $75 cheaper