dasein wrote:
That's not what the EULA actually says, nor is it anywhere close. Read for yourself in the portion you pasted:
I did. Oh so many times have I did so...
dasein wrote:
Translation: it's up to the vendor's whim. The EULA does not require them to refund the Windows license fee. (Which, as stevepusser noted, is not the same as full retail price).
That is what is there.
But, again, I can only speak from my own experience and in my country hardware vendors have been trampled over. The hardware and the software are understood as separate identities and not tied against each other. This came from the moment people started installing machines with Linux and then had to send those machines to support because some component croaked and the vendor immediately
tried refused warranties because of the OS switch/add on. Add a consumer rights association to the mix and a few law suits and some really dirty boots were going up some asses.
HP in my country as issued an unofficial memorandum to their support line staff (call center) stating the moment someone calling them regarding turning a license in they have to do deny in any way that possibility and if met with insistence, force written to headquarters. I'm still waiting a reply on such a question I've made them.
Dell forces you to send, at your expense, your machines abroad, to get the OS removed. Can you take a guess on what also gets done to the machine, especially if you have been adamant about taking out the OS?
dasein wrote:
Then too, the notion that one can save money by buying Linux preloaded is pure BS. Profit margins on hardware are tiny, so Linux-preload vendors invariably have to charge more for the same hardware, because their sales volume is at best one-50th of the Windows OEMs.
Hold that thought.
Hardware profit margins can be slim but a smart company will invest in developing a relation with their customers providing services. Windows excels at this in the tragic way: I know people taking their machine to the shop for virus clean and OS update/reinstall every 3 or 4 months.
Linux vendors can get this same money providing support for users. I can't see a Linux box demanding that much attention but I can definitely see a user requiring training or support.