Sorry you did not know that. All the big players have been that way for years. That is why I build and use full disks.
What's that mean?
Same here. I buy a laptop and then separately buy both Xp Pro & Office Professional.
I could care less what they install with the laptop. Usually it is not what I want anyway.
So do I, which is why I had never heard of this. OEMs still provide the OS disc for Commercial machines; all the Dell and HP workstations we get come with one.
If I could have built my own notebook, I would have.
This was the second home OEM computer purchase I have EVER made. The first was in about 1990, and it was a 386DX33 with a 120MB hard disk, MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1.
I had no idea they had foisted this crap over on everyone. I can't understand why there weren't torches and pitchforks over it!
Same here. I build from scratch or upgrade, then use a full install OEM disk if need be.
It is all about squeezing every penny of profit they can out of a PC sale. This means sneaking in the cheapest parts they can to unknowledgeable consumers. They put in cheap and inadequate power supplies, slow memory, non-upgradable motherboards, and so on, whatever they feel they can get away with. They all do it, Dell, Gateway, and others. I have also found it better in the long run to build my own. I know some would be afraid to try to build their first PC, but it is not nearly as hard as you may think and it is much easier than it was only a few years ago. There are all kinds of helpful “how to” articles to help guide you through the process. This way you get to research and select each component yourself. You also purchase your own full copy of the operating system. I hear a lot of people remark that you don’t save any money building your own PC. They are correct, but that is not the point. The point is you end up with a much better PC, rather than a box of cheap parts.
As far as laptops go, just as someone suggested, just figure in the cost of buying a full OS and install in over the one that comes on the laptop. From my experience they always load a bunch of pre-installed garbage anyway and that is a good way to clean it and start with a totally clean system.