On Wed, 2007-09-26 at 14:26 +0100, Nick Daniels wrote:

Hi I am looking for a cheap new laptop without O/S (£300-400) just for my Ham Radio

I have found Novatech, does anyone know of, or have used any other company please?

You have to be a bit careful. A lot of the provided with Linux or no OS installed Laptops I have seen are built on some generic OEM chassis (most frequently a clevo) and while there is not anything specifically wrong with that, the OEM machines tend to lag behind the mainstream brands in terms of things like thermal/battery management, robustness, design and reliability. Some even have desktop processors which if the thermal design isn't tip top is going to cause problems. It may seem illogical but at the moment I think probably buying a mainstream machine and binning the Windows Licence gets the best value. When dealing with mainstream manufacturers Microsoft charge nothing like the "official" price for OEM licences and the tiny amount they do charge gets covered by handouts from people like Norton for installing their crudware trials on the default image. So actually cost to the manufacturer for including Windows is pretty much nil. Therefore it is not like £75 or whatever of the machines price has gone towards a licence you don't need.