this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2026
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I would love if pc manufacturers would just ship laptops with e.g. Linux mint or fedora and just knock off the windows licence cost. I don't even mind if they have to ship it with bloatware, that's fine, as long as it just doesn't ship windows. Savvy users will just uninstall it
It's possible to get refunds for unused OEM Windows licenses in the EU.
https://en.refund4freedom.org/
Wow, nice. It sounds like Asus makes it the easiest, reimbursing for the license without shipping your machine to them. I don’t understand why the others that will reimburse require physical inspection of the machine.
to discourage you to do so
This, and probably clearing the license from BIOS. Otherwise you keep the license. Not sure how Asus resolves this. Maybe they just don't care.
I'd guess something using armory crate.
I would love a tick box setup. Maybe 2 Linux distro options and a windows option for +$X or whatever so ur laptop can arrive ready to set up with the OS desired on it. Should lower cost for customers who don't need windows, and maybe people on the fence will decide window isn't worth however much more it cost to get and order the Linux version. The more units are sold with Linux the more incentive there will be to sort drivers for more hardware etc.
Dell has this.
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/scr/laptops/appref=ubuntu-linux-os
No clue if you're still paying for the Windows license in that price though.