There's actually one thing that jacks up the price of laptop computers for sale - the pre-installed operating system. Instead of having Windows pre-installed or even installing licensed versions of Windows yourself, you can use any Linux variety instead. If you think it's a substandard operating system that only geeks use, think again. Times have changed.
That's right. You can easily find the latest versions of most varieties or flavors much to your liking: graphical user interface, easy installation, automatic detection of hardware, and pretty much everything you can find in Windows and so much more. You can either request you supplier to pre-install Linux for you or you can buy the laptops minus the operating systems and install Linux on your own.
If this is the first time you've heard of Linux or if you have tried Linux in the distant past and have balked at its complicated installation and usage, I suggest you give any of the latest versions a test run, and you won't be disappointed. Unlike Windows wherein you'll have difficulties finding a legal copy of the latest version to test run, Linux varieties can easily be downloaded for free.
You can even request some makers of certain popular flavors to send you installation CDs and, in most cases, you won't even have to spend for shipping. I've once tried requesting for 140 installation CDs of Ubuntu, the most popular Linux variety, just for kicks. To my surprise, all of them arrived; no questions asked.
Before you get confused as to why this is possible, let me explain to you the sole reason why a laptop computer sale involving Windows can get expensive. Whenever you buy a laptop with Microsoft Windows pre-installed or if you buy the Windows installer yourself, you need to pay for licensing fees. Linux, on the other hand, is free of license fees which is why they are able to send you all the Ubuntu CDs that you need.
To harness the full potential of each laptop, you will want to install as many programs as you can: the whole MS Office Suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Frontpage, & Access), Adobe Photoshop, Computer Aided Design (CAD), & Encarta. But with just this handfull of programs, you can already end up spending hundreds of dollars. With Linux, you can install hundreds of programs that are totally free.
Yes, when I say hundreds of programs, that means you can actually put in so much more into a single laptop for the price of ZERO. So the next time you come across a laptop computers sale, ask if they've got any operating system installed. They'll be cheapest if there aren't any.
