
Italy: High Court shoots down Windows tax - lelf
https://fsfe.org/news/2014/news-20140912-01.en.html
======
harty65
Is this a real issue in some countries? I live in the UK and unless you are
buying from the High Street there is usually always the option to purchase
without Windows included.

~~~
imrehg
A few years ago I went around to buy a laptop without Windows here in Taiwan.
5 places I asked, the general answer was "There isn't a laptop without
windows" up to the point where one clerk told me "It's illegal to sell a
laptop without windows!" (in all seriousness).

After a few weeks, I've found 1 place that was selling no-OS Lenovos, I got
better specs than available for Windows versions, and I'm very happy with it.
Still, it was difficult, and as much as I can see, it would be still difficult
here in Taiwan, even if more people start to use on-Windows systems, there's
just fewer people who demand change like this, because "well, just remove
Windows after you bought the computer".... Soon I'll need a new machine and
not looking forward to the search. Makes me sad.

------
viggity
If you don't like it, don't buy it. It really is that simple.

~~~
Tsiolkovsky
It is not so simple. Often you like some hardware and want to buy it but you
get no option of getting it with GNU/Linux or at least without paying for
Windows which you will then replace with GNU/Linux anyways. You can choose
other laptops but often they don't offer what you want, hardware wise.

~~~
CurtHagenlocher
What if I like the iPad's hardware but want to run Android on it? Is Apple
similarly obliged to make that possible? There's a slippery slope here when it
comes to forcing manufacturers to offer choices to the consumer, particularly
as politics inevitably get involved.

Disclosure: I work at Microsoft.

~~~
imrehg
Tablets, phones are expected to be bundled as they are expected to work out of
the box, and were designed for that particular OS (the different model of ARM
and friends in most cases).

Laptops, PCs are historically not, they are expected to be installed and
customized, and were NOT designed for a particular OS, but work as "general
purpose computing" (the universality of x86 in most cases).

There's no slippery slope, it's the customers want their general purpose
device to be general.

~~~
yuhong
This was a big reason why I disliked Chromebooks using different firmware. Why
do you think firmware standards exist in the first place?

