Hi everybody (and "big-post-warning"),
now we have to put our 2 cents in:
What Stephen says, is that you can't just compare prices.
You will get a different solution from every dealer. To show
two extremes as example:
1st: Some dealers just get the units from japan, change the
"language=jp" to "=en" and call it a localisation.
2nd: Others (cough) import devices, invest lots of money and
weeks of workload in localisation, finetuning, CE/FCC testing,
writing a manual, stocking parts, offering exchange devices in
case of repair... Simply: Work like you could expect it from a
major manufacturer. Not mentioned supporting Zaurus-related
Linux projects with free or massively discounted stuff.
If you think you'll able to collect all informations from the net and
just look for the best price: Get it from a japanese exporter and
have fun with your Zaurus.
If you want a solution that works right out of the box including the
"make me happy with support and warranty": Go to a professional
dealer.
That's all. Look what's behind the scenes and contact the source
before you buy. We daily support devices from self-importers and
bought from other sources. From what we see there we urgently
recommend that everybody who's spending his hard earned money
should closely look what he's getting for it.
@Lizzard: Regarding the manual and ressources:
You're right that we provide it in our free download section. We
don't see a reason why we should restrict our localisation sets
and informations only to our customers. The idea of Linux is a
free and open system with free informations for everybody.
We also know that very "smart-shoppers" use these ressources
to set up their self imported devices (about 700 downloads
monthly for the manual). But we also see that a lot of customers
choose us or StreamlineCPUs because of this.
To say it clear: Every user is free to use our ressources. But only
we (TRIsoft) and our US partner (StreamlineCPUs) are allowed
to deliver it with their devices.
///TRIsoft
Marc Stephan