Microsoft only taxes laptops sold by physical retail outlets. When ordering them online, one can often find a laptop without any OS preinstalled. Vendors are usually selling them to corporations who want Win10 enterprise covered by their volume licensing contracts.
Another good thing about them, it’s very uncommon for enterprise-targeted models to have soldered RAM or SSD. For instance, my secondary computer is HP ProBook 445 G8 with Ryzen 5 5600U which I upgraded to 32GB RAM / 2TB SSD, can recommend. However, I have no idea about ChromeOS compatibility, I’m using Windows and ordered a version with the OS license included.
There is no Microsoft tax for all intents and purposes. Manufacturers make more than an enough on the pre-installed crapware to make up for the Windows license.
Pixelbook is 4k. Seems like google discontinued the line but I use my 5 year old machine every day and it’s amazing. Boots in 1 second. Meanwhile my windows laptop is unusable.
Do I have to buy an AMD Windows laptop, pay the Microsoft tax, and convert it to a Chromebook? (Assuming it's possible).