Having read the article, I can't help ut wonder whom they contacted within these companies. I myself work as a salesperson in this region (UK/Eire) for one of the top three PC manufacturers, and regularly sell PC's without MSFT software. The issue is that a computer manufacturer is by law obliged to provide some sort of operating system, be it FreeDos, Linux, OSX or Windows (non-exhaustive list, for the nitpickers out there). Indeed, providing a PC without an OS would - in the eyes of the law - be tantamount to producing a car without an engine, and leave them open to all sorts of litigation. I've seen many customers buy HP, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens or other boxes with FreeDos or Linux, because they have pre-existing VL-agreementes with MSFT.
The major issue with this is that all manufacturers work with standardized SKU's and that any deviation from these requires special set-ups of the productlines. Hence, this is generally not offered to the general public or for purchase of nsies or twosies...
Just my two cents...
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Having read the article, I can't help ut wonder whom they contacted within these companies. I myself work as a salesperson in this region (UK/Eire) for one of the top three PC manufacturers, and regularly sell PC's without MSFT software. The issue is that a computer manufacturer is by law obliged to provide some sort of operating system, be it FreeDos, Linux, OSX or Windows (non-exhaustive list, for the nitpickers out there). Indeed, providing a PC without an OS would - in the eyes of the law - be tantamount to producing a car without an engine, and leave them open to all sorts of litigation. I've seen many customers buy HP, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens or other boxes with FreeDos or Linux, because they have pre-existing VL-agreementes with MSFT. The major issue with this is that all manufacturers work with standardized SKU's and that any deviation from these requires special set-ups of the productlines. Hence, this is generally not offered to the general public or for purchase of nsies or twosies ...
Just my two cents ...