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Get your Windows license refund

https://en.refund4freedom.org/
46•smartmic•48m ago

Comments

vkaku•23m ago
This is great. It tells you how many manufacturers make it easy and difficult to get refunds. ASUS is the most specific one, albeit their refund range is between 9 and 65 EUR. Great work.
p2detar•22m ago
I finally found the time this year to replace my parents' old T-series Thinkpad Windows 8 with Linux Mint. I also upgraded the hard drive to an SSD. The result - a 15 years old machine i5 Dual Core with 6GB RAM now boots and works extremely fast as compared to before. Also with USB and wireless mouse support out of the box - I didn't have to touch anything.

Sorry, if this offends anyone, but Windows (non-Server editions) is a junk OS that I never ever want to see or use again.

xxs•9m ago
even finds network printers on its own
cpa•5m ago
In my experience, unfortunately it’s fast until you need to use a webapp (Gmail, FB, Netflix…).

For document editing or code it’s pretty awesome but a sluggish web is a deal breaker for many these days.

Razengan•4m ago
> Windows (non-Server editions) is a junk OS

Some people realized this 25 years ago

hosel•3m ago
The server editions are junk too, lol.
petcat•22m ago
> the vast majority of laptops are only sold with a specific proprietary operating system: Microsoft Windows. The vendors do not remove the Windows license, and you must pay the entire price, even if you do not want to use this system. This is unfair and we want to change it! Consumers should be able to buy laptops without any specific operating system, and should not have to pay the license price if they don't want to.

How about this: don't buy a product that you don't want.

If you don't want Windows, then buy a product that doesn't come with Windows. Buy from System 76 or another vendor that sells the product that you want.

You are in control of what you do and who you give your money to.

You are not helpless.

edent•21m ago
It literally says:

> Want to buy a licence-free PC directly? Search for your nearest Linux-friendly shop on LinuxSi! (Italian-only).

amarcheschi•19m ago
A big store chain in italy (mediaworld/mediamarkt) sells laptops without license as well, of course with a lower price than the equivalent with windows license
walrus01•15m ago
Given the very wide selection of x86-64 platform PC workstation hardware which is capable of running linux just fine, limiting yourself to only a few vendors just because you don't want it to have win11 out of the box is really doing things the hard way just because.

It's like going car shopping and having a choice of a dozen brands and 8 or 10 different types of subcompact, compact, sports cars, compact SUVs, full size SUVs, minivans, EVs from each manufacturer. But no, you can only buy this specific model of Toyota Camry or or maybe 3 different models of Hyundai. Oh, you wanted something else? So sorry

I mean, I bought a random Intel N150 with 12GB RAM, 256GB SSD mini PC on Amazon to run Home Assistant on, it came with windows 11 out of the box and immediately got wiped. If I'd gone buying only the equivalent hardware that came with no OS or linux on it I would have paid hundreds more for the exact same thing.

swozey•19m ago
I don't even know how I got Windows 11 at this point 900 reinstalls later. I build all my own pcs. I must have paid for a key at some point, potentially.
nazgulsenpai•11m ago
You could have bought Windows 7 or 8 then upgraded (free) to 10 then 11. If you ever logged in with a Microsoft account for a user, then the entitlement is tied to your Microsoft account.
flaep•4m ago
Since one can get a lot of models with and without Windows, I would suggest to ask the seller to get a variant without windows. This way availability sorts it self over time. Vendors do not want to sell Windows Notebooks, seller just demand only windows notebooks. OEM/ODM will however only test some linux distributions and very likely support none.
nekusar•3m ago
I bought a pack of Win10 pro keys for $5 a key. Gray market site, but 100% legit.

The few times I needed a key, it worked the first time. And for a friend who needed Win11, the upgrade from 10 Pro to 11 worked first time.

I'd never pay more than $5 per Windows key. But I prefer Linux instead.

OroPla•14m ago
Sure, but imagine how funny it would be if you could buy something from Apple and get a refund because you don't want to use their OS.
StrLght•9m ago
> How about this: don't buy a product that you don't want.

How about laptop manufacturers stop making shady deals with Microsoft to force its OS on everyone?

It’s crazy how many passes these companies get. A huge number of them are still selling high-end laptops with Intel chips because they signed agreements that effectively prohibit them from offering AMD variants.

Let's stop pretending like any of this is acceptable.

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