[Fsf-friends] IBM says don't partition your disk!

[Mahesh T Pai]

There are complaints in other mailing lists to wich I subscribe, that 
doing a dual boot on a system with XP will actually result in a duel 
between the partitions, with non-enslaving s/w being eXPpelled from 
the hard disk.

You may be able to install linux on a partition.  But, next time you 
boot into XP, the 'install new hardware' program will run and the 
linux partition will be formatted and converted to winXP partition, of 
course, *with* your permission, which you gave by clicking the 
'accept' button first your system was run.

vsasi@vsnl.com wrote:

> (a) that there was a hidden partition of 4 GB that contained the OS

Huh?  So the HDD is actually 44GB (or more)?  Or is that the system 
would display HDD size to be 36GB, and it would require some hacking 
to identify the OS partition?  (Just curious)

> (b) that, if the disk was partitioned and the machine was connected
> to the Internet, then it would inform IBM about the change in
> configuration and the purchaser would lose the warranty.

You are wrong there.  Info goes to M$.  It goes whether you partition 
or not; every time you (1) access the net; (2) change your hardware 
configureaion.

It will not ask you before installing software upgrades.

You will not be informed that all info on the MP3, WMA files and other 
multi media / audio files on your system is being sent to some secret 
location.

> Would any of you have any information on such practices? This seems
> to be a serious matter that has to be taken up.

In US, M$ has a division for dealing with requests for refund from 
customers who purchased systems with M$ pre-installed.  Conditions 
apply, the condition is that you should not hit the 'accept' button 
(apparently) at first start up.  In your case, the system vendor or 
his service technicians have already done it for your friend.  So, 
forget refund, unless you want to fignt it in court with the hardware 
vendors.

Regards,
Mahesh T Pai.