Hello,

I am facing the fact, that I had to buy a notebook with Windows 10 ALTHOUGH I DO NOT NEED THIS OPERATING SYSTEM AT ALL! No other possibility.

It cost me 100€ for nothing, because there is unfortunately no real way to buy a new computer pre-installed with FREEDOS or LINUX. With Freedos, you get a very limited choice of notebooks.

One month of searching experiments (phone calls, shops,...) was made, it was quite interesting, and it showed an interesting result. It confirms the fact that there not much to do. You've got to buy a Windows License (even if you do NOT need it, tell it, ask for NO WINDOWS!).

You have today the choice : Mac or PC (<- which is Windows by very aggressive marketing strategy of MS; maybe MS will lock one day your computer/notebook BIOS? It's on quite good way. Linus has right to be very much pissed off about it.). No computer producers are interested at all by selling it with Freedos or Linux, - nothing to earn!

I am really unlucky that the Linux community is not making itself some OPENSOURCE NOTEBOOKs. ASUS, DELL and LENOVO have almost nothing on Freedos. Simply you face the fact that you must buy Windows, by the end.

There is Pyra, Pandora,... who is a team of genius that made Opensource making fantastic hardware:
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/

Maybe it is the fact that too much users are simply happy of having Windows, aren't completely capable to handle Linux to have it at 100% of the time. Too much users buy Windows, so, there will be windows always. You have the choice to make the world much Opensource. If you aren't yet joining the dev, you could try to help us, who are bringing Linux, Debian,... and fantastic bunch applications/softwares for you. Why not simply making as well some Opensource Notebooks/Computers?

You have the power to decide if you want that Microsoft remains on the market until the end of time. Maybe a society, one day, ruled completely by MS?

Simply join a team that release some Opensource notebooks as well, with freedos, linux, ... just Opensource!

Hoping that the Linux movement will get larger.

Best regards
Pat

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The fact is that the great majority of computer users have never heard of Linux. They may have heard of Apple, but that's it.

Here in the States at least, you can buy native Linux machines from Zareason, ThinkPenguin, and System76 (there may be others that I don't know of); they are Linux-only vendors. Most persons outside of the world of Linux have never heard of them either.

The upswelling of popular demand for which you wish just isn't there and, frankly, is unlikely to be there.

The OEM didn't pay 100 nothing for the OS. When I worked at one place, they'd get a license for next to nothing. I can't say what it is but it was next to nothing. That cost didn't raise the price of the product. Cost more to put the systems in boxes.

Of course, it raises the product price. What do you believe?

You could get better informed.

Do you need the bills to prove you the machine with freedos (months ago) and with the MS one?

You might be able to fight for a refund on the Windows Tax, but it requires documenting key steps carefully.

One set of strategies is documented at FSFE : https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/WindowsTaxRefund

It's easier if you plan it in advance.

It will take some time, but together as a group, breaking the monopoly that M$ has on the OEMs is essential in lowering costs and taking a quantum leap forward in quality and functionality. Both the public and private sector seem to be losing double digit productivity because of the albatross around their necks that is M$.

The best way is to buy hardware without M$. But to do that you may have to change vendors frequently. As you're seeing, what's available varies from month to month as M$ plays whack-a-mole with OEMs trying to free up the market.

The article below on microsoft pricing to OEM's from one of their executives:

http://www.osnews.com/story/22174/OE..._for_a_1000_PC

There are recent articles and (also I have anecdotal evidence from looking at my own website stats) that estimate that Linux accounts for around 1.5% of desktop users.

I'd also guess that as that article is 7 years old that prices have come down since then and would be even lower for mega-bulk OEM's like Dell, HP, etc.

Or the prices could have gone up. It's hard to know.

It's very hard to get that information in current or precise form because M$ treats that information as a trade secret. Indeed their ability extort OEMs depends on the dividing and conquering that is possible by keeping them in the dark. The proposed Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) threatens to make it even more difficult to get at that information, thus raising the cost of doing business for the OEMs even further.

I disagree, Dell do a range of laptops with Ubuntu with the cheapest coming in at €280 - http://www.dell.com/ie/p/inspiron-15...15-3552-laptop

You cannot buy an inspiron in EU. Who care about 280€?
The point is not that you can buy a DELL with Linux. Wow fantastic Linux and a notebook... no no no


The point is that you CANNOT buy a computer that is BIOS FREE-ACCES !!!

1) HP, ASUS, LENOVO, ... should as well sell notebooks with NOTHING or FREEDOS or LINUX!!
2) we do not want WINDOWS!
3) we should make our own NOTEBOOKS
4) LINUX users/community shall STOP buy WINDOWS and shall buy only LINUX or Freedos Notebooks. At less 1.5% less for M$!

Some manufactures do like the dell example but then your stuck with a crappy inspiron rather than a latitude. I end up buying "refurbished" latitudes so the license cost was already paid for by the original purchaser.

I believe that the Inspiron can be bought with an Intel Core i3, with 11.6", which is already pretty good.

Not talking about the processor, its the difference in quality.

If my Pi and laptop died tomorrow: https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/novena ...

nice vid. You get wood... and build your own laptop.


EEEBOOK....
- Look mine, can you make it as much thin in wood? I probably got the last available ASUS R206S eeebook on earth
Nice machine, nice hardware adapted to LINUX:
http://www.saturn.at/de/product/_asu...0-1435446.html

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