Penguins Without Linux

Compaq sells notebooks with Windows only, but shows notebooks with penguins in it's advertisements in various Belgian newspapers and magazines. The example advertisement (A giant leap for mankind, a small step for your budget) in the newspaper De Standaard of November 16, 2000 even shows a large banner Compaq recommends Windows 2000 Professional for business at the bottom of the advertisement.

When I first saw such an advertisement, I queried the Compaq sales division (translated from my original email in Dutch):

	Hi,

In this week's issue of Knack magazine I found an advertisement from Compaq
computers. Al mentioned computer models are sold including a variant of
Microsoft Windows.

Surprisingly, the picture for the Compaq Armada V300 model shows a notebook
with a collection of _penguins_ on the LCD. Does this mean this model can also
be purchased with Linux instead of Microsoft Windows?

Many thanks for your reply!

[standard signature]
    

and received the following response (translated from the original reply in Dutch):

Dear Mister Uytterhoeven,

We received your email well, thank you. In response to your query we can tell
you that the Compaq products are delivered with Microsoft Windows only. You can
run Linux on the Armadas, but it is not supported by Compaq.

Feel free to contact us if you have more questions.

[standard signature]
    

References

• My email to Compaq (in Dutch):

  From: Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@linux-m68k.org>
  To: info.belux@compaq.com
  Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 16:19:54 +0200 (CEST)
  Subject: Compaq Armada V300
  
          Hoi,
  
  In Knack van deze week vind ik een advertentie van Compaq computers. Al de
  vermelde modellen worden geleverd met een variant van Microsoft Windows.
  
  Tot mijn verwondering toont de afbeelding bij het model Compaq Armada V300 een
  portable met een verzameling _pinguins_ op het LCD-scherm. Wil dit zeggen dat
  dit model ook verkrijgbaar is zonder Microsoft Windows, maar met Linux?
  
  Alvast bedankt voor uw reactie!
  
  Gr{oetje,eeting}s,
  
                                                  Geert
  
  --
  Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org
  
  In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
  when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
                                                              -- Linus Torvalds
  	

• Compaq's reply (in Dutch):

  From: "belux, Info" <Info.Belux@compaq.com>
  To: "'geert@linux-m68k.org'" <geert@linux-m68k.org>
  Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 13:26:25 +0100
  Subject: FW: Compaq Armada V300
  
  Geachte Heer Uytterhoeven,
  
  We hebben uw email goed ontvangen en danken u hiervoor. In antwoord op uw
  vraag melden iwj u dat de compaq-producten enkel geleverd worden met
  Microsoft Windows. Linux kan wel draaien op de Armada's maar wordt niet
  ondersteund door Compaq.
  
  Hebt U nog vragen, aarzel dan niet om met ons contact op te nemen.
  
  Met vriendelijke groeten,
  
  Compaq Info Belux
  
  Tel: 070/22.20.30
  Fax: 070/22.20.50
  e-mail: info.belux@compaq.com