A Pinnacle Systems PCTV DVB-T USB thingamy as part of a bundle (yes - I know they're owned by BT these days)

Requires: WinXP, 1.0Ghz processor, 20GB free disk capacity recommended and a CD-ROM

I only looked at this story for the picture of the women using the Eee Pc on the beach. I'm disappointed..... :-(

I don't think so. Try Mac OS X.

Sloppy...

Perhaps she hasnt upgraded to the 900 yet?

& double D'OH!

To be fair to Dabs, the Pinnacle USB DVB-T devices work under linux as well, so it's not really as stupid as it sounds. They just can't claim linux compatibility because the manufacturer doesn't claim it either (linux drivers were created without their help.)

Why shipping a DVB-T tuner with an Eee is possibly a little stupid is the lack of storage space on the thing, you might get away with running MythTV on it's low spec but you'd not be able to record very much. DVB-T runs at 1-2Gb+ per hour of video.

You get it as part of the laptop. It's perfectly adequate for home and mobile office needs. Even if you chose to install XP on your Eee PC, you'd be better off installing OpenOffice because it takes up less space.

Phil, perhaps that might have been sarcasm?

Re: iWork on Linux

Erm, iRony?

Phil: Are you american?

So, disregarding the fact they're shipping software that won't even work on the machine it's bundled with (no doubt a ploy to get millions of calls to their premium rate helpline), they're charging £86.35 for MS H&S Office. Yet you can get it on eBuyer for £84.79 inc free delivery. Even Nerd World is only charging a couple of quid more for it.

Nice one, Beattie.

Fail.

Paris, because even she stood more of a chance of getting the joke.

BT is offering an Asus thingie which is not bundled with a pic of the blond chick?

Or is it just that El Reg forgot to put it in the article?

The product from http://www.codeweavers.com/ is actually very good, and allows MS office to run on Linux, and would add £39.99 to the savings.

Many users would not care that it was included, as long as office 'just worked'

Why is anyone bothering with MS Office, or MS at all now? Surely a lower cost open source solution is a better business proposition? I'm managing on my EEE PC 7" with OpenOffice(.org).

Could you please rewrite the article and make it more pertinent to the sites IT geeks by putting the picture of the beach babe back in there, even if it is done through a link.

I thought the same, but as far as I know Crossover Office doesn't work too well with .Net applications, including more recent versions of Office. Microsoft Office 2007, which is what is shown in the picture, is "known not to work" according to Codeweaver's compatibility chart.

You superfail!

"Office 'just worked'". Ho Ho! Shurely shome mishtake here.

Back in the mid-90's I worked at a place I will only refer to as "Chinaman Joe's PC Emporium" to protect the guilty. The jelly-brained owner decided to make a CD of the "best" OS/2 shareware and called it "OS/2 Fever". The CD cover also said "Forget about Windows, use OS/2!" This would have been fine if it wasn't for the Windows compatible logo on the cover and the fact that it depended on running a DOS batch file to start a 16 bit Windows installation/menu program to install the OS/2 software.

Paris, because she's 3 times smarter than my old boss. And better looking.

"To be fair to Dabs, the Pinnacle USB DVB-T devices work under linux as well, so it's not really as stupid as it sounds. They just can't claim linux compatibility because the manufacturer doesn't claim it either (linux drivers were created without their help.)"

Since the drivers end up forming part of the kernel, they have to be released under the GPL, so the manufacturers and vendors certainly *can* claim Linux compatibility (since they have permission to supply the drivers).

OTOH, I would not put it past Microsoft to be dissuading hardware manufacturers from admitting to their products working with Linux. That isn't hard to do, if you have a driver approval program which to all intents and purposes can make or break people's ability to sell hardware .....

A key beauty of the eee is its price.

So in one go Bt have managed to create a eeepc that now costs more than some full sized laptops! all of them can run openoffice so the question has to be WHY???

At last we see the size of microsoft tax

Basic rate = 8Gb 'hard disk' (20-12Gb) - say £36

higher rate = £86 (422-336)

total - £122

That's about 25% of unnecessary expense!

Don't bother with msft - keep the cash for beer!

spegru

PS. Dropped my eee onto hard pavement the other day. No damage!

You might want to re-read what I said. I said Dabs can't claim linux support if the manufacturers don't, reasons for this include the support/liability resting with Dabs if doesn't actually work, they won't take that risk.

Of course the manufacturers are free to make the claim but they don't. I'd guess they would be hesitant to do so unless they were sure that it worked well enough and that they wouldn't have to train support staff in linux. Many companies are happy to cooperate with development of linux drivers, but few of them advertise linux support since they would then be obligated to offer technical support to customers. This is an additional cost they can avoid by letting the linux community support users instead.

C'mon, make the chick the official mascot of the eee. Eeeven better, make 'er the mascot of all notebooks under 1 kg. She must 'ave 1 kg per airbag...

I wonder whether she will ever come bundled with the eee... I promise I will buy one.

In other news, brown-shovelers at BT are l33t members of EEDIOTS UNITED. Big deal!

As long as you bear in mind that "just" can be a synonym for "barely".

http://wine-review.blogspot.com/2008/03/office-2007-on-linux-with-wine-install.html

http://wine-review.blogspot.com/2008/03/microsoft-office-2007-update.html

Well, its not 100% out of the boxable, but it does work...

So this implies BT are offering commercial support for wine :)

(especially for you phil)

/sarcasm

It took me a while but I think I understand why this BT offer is attracting such ridicule.

1. Most people who might buy an Eee PC will already have at least one other computer but very few of these will be Windows boxes.

2. Nobody who's tried OpenOffice on an Eee could possibly think that that other Office had anything useful to offer, could they?

Well spotted Reg, this is a genuine mistake by our PM team who should have ticked the Asus box out of the bundle deal. We've taken it from the site now for Linux based notebooks.

Thanks for spotting and everyones comments.

Jonathan

BT Shop

Is that camera superimposed?

A mistake by BT - I'm shocked, really shocked!

Hmmm, I wish you'd admit that getting into bed with Phorm is a mistake....