I suggest you contact Guy Youngblood at Dell.            [log in to unmask]

He’s helped us.

The bit about licensing as it applies to MSU is correct. The versions of Departmental licensed Windows sold through the U Computer store have been upgrade only.

 

That said, Dell has sold some lines without an OS. They were N models with an N sticker.

The BIOS on those is tweaked to require an OEM or Retail licensed version of Windows.

 

 

Don Bosman

Information Technologist

MSU Libraries

366 W. Circle Drive  -  Rm.W441

East Lansing, MI 48824-1048

517-884-0873

 

 

 

 

 

Hi all,

We are looking at upgrading our department’s Assistive Technology lab this summer. We want to purchase all-in-one touch screen PCs, and are currently focusing on the Dell XPS27. I would prefer to buy something in the Optiplex line, perhaps the Optiplex 9020, except  that in order to use some of our assistive technologies, we require HDMI in, and the optiplex apparently only offers HDMI out. I want to roll a Windows 8 Enterprise image out to all these machines, so really don’t see the need to spend money at time of purchase for an OS, but according to our Dell rep, they won’t sell us  a machine without some version of Windows.  He stated that the Windows 8 Enterprise  licenses sold by our computer store are “upgrade only”, so we would be out of compliance with Microsoft  in any case if we were to install that version to a bare machine. Can anyone shed more light on this? Is  there any way to get around the waste of buying a machine with a version of Windows which will immediately be blown away and never used again?

The rep did indicate they do offer the option of selling select machines with Linux installed but alas, they apparently don’t do that for any of the machines we are interested in.

Thanks,

 

Al Puzzuoli

Michigan State University

Information Technologist                                       http://www.rcpd.msu.edu

Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities  517-884-1915 120 Bessey Hall East Lansing, MI  48824-1033