I have just bought an Acer Aspire 5810T Timeline from Comet (UK), and the sales assistant who sold it to me told me I am entitled to an upgrade to Windows 7. As I am not fond of anything Microsoft, and indeed I am a big fan of Linux, in particular the wonderful Ubuntu operating system, so I said as much to the assistant.

He then stated that if I installed Ubuntu that it would invalidate the warranty. I laughed, thinking “oh poor chap, he doesn’t understand consumer rights”. He then called over to another assistant asking if he was right. Amazingly, she agreed with him. As I was in a bit of a hurry, I just smiled and bought the computer.

So… upon getting home I start up the computer and it is as sweet as I thought, but running Vista. I decided to email Comet to make sure that the sales staff get educated away from their obviously incorrect beliefs. I just received their response:

Words almost fail me. I will not be letting this go. How on earth can installing an alternative O/S invalidate my warranty? It certainly does not invalidate my consumer rights. I have contacted Trading Standards and they say I may have to threaten court action if the computer fails and they maintain this line.

I have emailed Acer and await their response.

This appears to not be a new issue. I have seen posts from 2004 that mention that if you update the BIOS or change the OS you invalidate the warranty. That said, it has a recovery partition, so if you do have a hardware problem you can always do a factory restore and pretend that it has always had Windows on it.

As this is such an old pre-existing issue, you should vote with your wallet and buy a different brand if it causes so many problems. They have been doing this for 5 years or more and I would assume they have no plans to change.

Since this is a customer service rather than a technical issue, I haved moved it to General.

Unfortunately, you'd have a lot of boycotting to do if you pursued this route: Acer is not alone. As just one example, HP is the same way. If you install Linux on an HP machine that came with Windows, they tell you it will void the warranty and/or cause your machine to be ineligible for HP support. Quite ridiculous, but that's the way it is :/

Workaround: If you need the machine serviced under warranty, re-install Windows and send it for repairs. Or, leave Windows on the machine somewhere, and install Linux to another partition.

Kind regards,

Sasha

Like XavierP said, this is nothing new. I experienced the exact same crap with HP. I had to send my notebook back because the wireless card died, however before sending it, I had to *hide* my Linux installation. Actually, I wasn't even running the HP's XP OEM either, but a student copy, so I was afraid even THAT might invalidate my warranty. So needless to say, I wiped XP and ran the HP recovery discs to put back HP's version of XP (but didn't wipe Slackware, just wiped LILO), and then sent it back. HP was none the wiser, but still really inconvenient for me to have to go through all that shit, just so they can replace a f'ing wifi card.

It is not ALL their fault though. This is purely due to the hand of Microsoft and their strong-arm tactics of forcing hardware vendors such as HP, Acer, etc to support ONLY Windows. Dell has obviously made SOME effort into supporting Linux, though their choice of distro doesn't meet my needs obviously, but its a start at least.

Hello,

Over the years I have had this problem twice. Now I make a habit of just performing the basic installation as comes with the computer up to full configuration and activation of whatever (just as if I'm continuing with Windows). Then when that's finished I boot from my Acronis CD and make a full image of the HD, save it to an external USB HD and install whatever I want on the computer in question.

The third time I had a problem and they (believe it was Acer too) told me to bring the computer in for repair, I just installed the image back to the HD of the laptop and set to go. Needless to say that I also made an image of the Linux install.

Switching the OS using Acronis takes maximum 10 minutes and avoids discussions like this with manufacturers that force you to do things.

Kind regards,

Eric

PS: in my opinion, boycotting will result to nothing, at least not for the time being. Preparing yourself results in less anger and more pleasure because you are in control without them knowing it.

What would bug me more is that almost half the purchase price of the computer you bought was for the Windows licence, which you don't want nor use. It would be nice to be able to refuse the EULA and get money back for the Windows licence.

I hate to appear on the "wrong side" here but: If I am not mistaken, current law says that a vendor can bundle things together and then set up the warranty to avoid liability if the customer changes it.

Consider a few examples:

• Change the engine in your car---the mfg. certainly will not honor the warranty on--for example--the transmission. (You'd hope they would honor it on the radi0.)
  
• Buy a printer and replace the print head with an off-brand.
  
• Buy a coffemaker and but use the filter and carafe from you old one.

Keep in mind that warranties are written to protect the seller, not the buyer

I would like to see the laws changed so that computer vendors are required to offed a choice of OSes---this, however, is an uphill battle. Even if it happens, you can bet that NO vendor will provide a warranty that gives 100% protection regardless of what you do to the computer--including installing the OS.

We periodically see reports of how people have gotten refunds for unused Windows OSes. Never tried it, but would like to some day....

TBO i cannot live without windows.
and also i cannot live with only windows.
i see there perspective but i doubt that by the computer executing diferent OS code that it will break the hardware.

When I had my Apple-II, I lived without Windows.

When I had my first Mac--and then several more--I lived without Windows.

Then there was the infamous power-macs. I called my last one the "crashomatic". Looking back, I cannot believe how I saw Windows 95 as an improvement.

I have now gone for over two years without Windows on either home or office computers.

I submit that your statement should read:
"I don't want to live without Windows." (And that is OK!!)

Gotta remember another concept here, as far as HP goes, you lose support because their tech's don't have step-by-step instructions (in English) to be able to assist you with troubleshooting your problem before you qualify for sending it back.

a. Plug in the power cable in the back of the monitor. That is the black cable that you plug into the back of the screen. Please hit the power button.
-Did you do this? Did the light come on? What color was the light?
yes: move on to step b
no: replace monitor or cable. see monitor guide
b. Plug in the....

(followed by the most ridiculous steps to troubleshoot why your printer isn't printing blue anymore)

There are quite a few companies that pre-install Linux, including Dell. I appreciate the complaint, but honestly if it makes that big a deal to you, just buy one of them.

Otherwise, well, you get what you pay for

But what if I can't close the coffee-cup holder? Or perhaps the use of Linux voids my warranty on that too....

why dont they sell computers with NO operating system installed giving the ultimite choice.

This is one of things I always thought was obvious too - just let me pick this as an option when building a machine!

Usually the argument is that 'people will install hacked versions of windows' or whatever. I think that's unfair, largely because it presumes criminal intent with no proof.