IMHO The average person can install "software," installing the OS is another story (easy enough with a reset partition) but maintaining it...

I buy computers with Linux pre-installed for several reasons. (I lean towards Zareason, because Zareason lets you pick your distro.)

I'm not paying the Microsoft tax.

The hardware is guaranteed to work with Linux.

The machines tend to be a bit more expensive than economy Windows desktops/laptops (e.g., Dell Inspirons), but, dollar for dollar, the quality of the hardware tends to be worth the extra bit.

I don't have to deal with Windows secure market share--er, secure boot.

Just my two cents.

Full Disclosure: over the years, I've had a number of Dells. I got my money's worth out of each and every one.

Microsoft tax? I've considered buying a laptop with Linux pre-installed and the thing I noticed was that it costs more to do so.
I thought it was common knowledge that bloatware pays for the price of Windows on the majority of machines sold?

I suspect the better hardware accounts for the difference in price. I can attest that my Zareason laptop has without question the best laptop keyboard I've ever used.

As for the MS tax, frankly, it's been a long time since I delved into it, but, even if my money goes indirectly to MS, it's a dollar too much.

You do have a point about the bloatware, though. Windows installed from an MS Windows installation disk is a far different creature from a Windows OEM install on third-party machine. It's not quite lean and mean and it still takes forever to boot, but it's certainly much leaner than you'll get in an OEM install.

When I look that isn't the case.

I reckon that depends on the vendor, then. All I can say is I'm quite happy with my boxes and believe I got my money's worth, and that's after years of happily using Inspirons.

I think you likely paid a good few percent more to not have Windows pre-installed. have atempted to keep track.

And well worth it, too, to have Slackware pre-installed.

Here'a factoid. When you call Zareason on the telephone, your call is answered by a real live human being whose menu options have not recently changed.

It rather takes one aback the first time.

Yes, paying for actual support is a good thing. Just paying to not have Windows installed, not s o much...

Yes, but probably also the smaller production run. Harder for economy of scale to operate.

If you've got a T420 around, let me ask you, if you don't mind: of the two ports on the left side next to the hard drive bay, what is the larger upper one? This model is slightly newer than anything I've had yet, and I'm not familiar with that port type. I don't know what it's for. Haven't found any diagrams of that side of the T420 online yet. It has a symbol that looks like a mouse, and the inside of the port looks like it takes a SATA cable. No--not the same shape but similar.

On my right is USB and SATA combo(*), to the left with an ++P imprint is VESA(*) not that I ever used it aside from once trying to get a HDMI cable in there...

Thanks. The review that describes T420 as button-heavy and full of ports wasn't kidding. My T400 was much simpler. There must be three or four connections I don't immediately know and don't necessarily have any need for. The main reason I wanted to know about the one on the left was because I've never used USB 3.0 before, and with this being the newest laptop I've yet had, I mistakenly thought it was a port for USB 3.0 devices, without remembering that they wouldn't use a different port if they're backwards-compatible.

Old hardware does that but can still be sweet thx to free... what was that again?

...dom... I got confused becauseare next to a SSD and on the left another slide-out SSD... &c.