HP says: if you don't want Windows, maybe you should consider another laptop brand
By Daniel on Thursday 8 November 2007, 23:40 - Gadgets - Permalink
I am a happy buyer/user of a HP laptop (HP NX6110), and previously of a HP/Compaq Workstation. Often, I also recommend HP computers to others. Unfortunately, a recent post on a Linux Dutch forum makes me want to reconsider such recommendations and my future purchases. There have been recent cases where buyers went to court, and the courts ruled that they should be awared a fee upon rejecting the Windows EULA. So, at the very least, I am surprised, maybe even entertained by their reaction. Here are some snippets translated from Dutch:
''It is correct that we, as a manufacturer, can not return the money for the license, or give a price reduction for a product of HP or Compaq. Your salesman could have the possibility to handle this for you. I have to state clearly that not every salesman can offer this possibility for all products that they sell.
To clarify this a bit more, every HP or Compaq product is delivered with a License, and we do not have the possibility to remove this license or deliver the product without a license, so without an operating system and extra hardware. HP only guarantees that their products work properly with the original software that was preinstalled.
It could be the case that you, together with your salesman, have to look at the possibilities of a completely different product from another brand. This can be a bare system, or a system from another manufacturer that provides more opportunities for returning the license costs.''
Thank you HP for listening to your customers, your advise couldn't have been clearer :)!
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, so I do not know whether HP or someone else is required to return a free upon declining the Windows EULA. But their own recommendation is pretty entertaining.
Update: Let's be fair: some resellers do offer HP laptops with FreeDOS.
Comments
As much as I understand that if you've never had any problems with HP laptops you're likely to recommend them, most laptops offered by the large 'manufacturers' are actually put together by a limited number of suppliers, such as Compal Electronics.
Therefore, Dell or Toshiba for example, many of whose laptops are made by the very same people in Taiwan or China, should offer the same quality, and in fact do so.
This applies as well to 'local' Dutch laptop brands such as BTOnotebooks, that ship without any OS by default. No need to be afraid of it, just because it doesn't have 'HP' on it.
Thanks for elaborating, I wasn't aware of that. Although, I suppose there can still be a difference in choice of components? E.g. maybe HP opts for higher-quality components than a cheaper brand.
I guess so, judging the poor quality of at least the laptop's cases of Acer and Packard Bell laptops, which I would advise anyone to just avoid. But HP has its own budget models (Compaq) that are not that sturdy either, as for the plastic case and keyboards used. It might be interesting to take a look in one of those Taiwan plants, see how they are really going about.
A friend of mine has an old Toshiba Satellite - there we're talking of a virtually indestructible machine. Very nicely assembled.
By the way, thanks for the link to the FreeDOS laptop. They don't usually advertise those, and although I'm not a Linux guru, I really get nervous behind a Windows pc, so that license would be a great waste to me. ;) Too bad the Celeron model doesn't support 'SpeedStep', which is a pity from a battery life point of view, but I guess next year even the C2D models will cost very little.
Or maybe the Asus Eee after all? :)