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The flaw in that reasoning is that even if he installed Linux or another OS, he still would have been paying for the Windows license...there have always been manufacturers selling PCs with no OS installed.

Fair enough. But, as you pointed out he could've bought a computer from a dealer with no OS installed.

Everybody I know who is a Linux aficionado never buys a computer with Windows pre-installed. They either build the computer themselves or buy it from a dealer who sells PC's with no OS. I think the complainer in the article just wanted something for nothing.

Fair enough. But, as you pointed out he could've bought a computer from a dealer with no OS installed.

It's getting really tiresome to refute this particular lie over and over again.

Please name a nationwide OEM that will sell you a PC without Windows.

If you want a PC with support, you buy from a Gateway, a Dell or an IBM. None of them offer a PC without Windows.

If you will settle for buying a machine from a Mom and Pop operation or if you build it yourself, you can do it without paying the Windows tax. But if you buy from any of the big OEMs, you pay for Windows and you can't get your money back.

"Everybody I know who is a Linux aficionado never buys a computer with Windows pre-installed. "

I think I have picked up on part of your mistaken reasoning. Laws are promulgated on a macro level, not a micro level. The fact that SOME consumers may be able to beat the monopolist, is not a defense for the monopolist not is it a justification for lack of legal deterrents.

Take this example. A Cow maker, unfairly corners the market on Cows. The price of cows, and hamburger skyrockets. BUT, I live in Arkansas and I can raise a cow out behind my trailer and butcher my own cow and grill my own hamburger. That has nothing to do with the price of cows in China, or in the USA. Most people can't raise their own cow, don't have a pasture, don't have a trailer, etc.

Expecting the law to micro-focus like this is silly and impractical. Better to outlaw unfair competition and notlook for "ducks ex machine" (which is Latin for ducks out of a machine and I don't know why people say it in situations like this, but they do.) solutions. parsy the great explainer.