Get your Windows license refund • Hacker News Board

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#11

Post by xxs » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 2:21 PM UTC

p2detar wrote: post #3

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 editi…

even finds network printers on its own

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#12

Post by StrLght » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 2:21 PM UTC

petcat wrote: post #4

> 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…

> 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.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#13

Post by cpa » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 2:25 PM UTC

p2detar wrote: post #3

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 editi…

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.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#14

Post by Razengan » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 2:26 PM UTC

p2detar wrote: post #3

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 editi…

> Windows (non-Server editions) is a junk OS

Some people realized this 25 years ago

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#15

Post by flaep » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 2:27 PM UTC

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.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#16

Post by hosel » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 2:27 PM UTC

p2detar wrote: post #3

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 editi…

The server editions are junk too, lol.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#17

Post by nekusar » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 2:27 PM UTC

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.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#18

Post by bayindirh » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 2:28 PM UTC

p2detar wrote: post #3

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 editi…

Yes, I'm offended, because you excluded Windows Server.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#19

Post by vidarh » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 2:29 PM UTC

petcat wrote: post #4

> 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…

The (still limited but better) choice exists now in large part because of many years of activism[1][2][3][4] similar to that in the linked article as a consequence of Microsoft actively abusing their market position to make it hard to avoid paying for Windows.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Refund_Day

[2] https://www.wired.com/1999/01/the-non-refundable-refund/

[3] https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/...

[4] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/279926.stm

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#20

Post by anon291 » Fri, Aug 28, 2026, 2:29 PM UTC

p2detar wrote: post #3

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 editi…

It shouldn't be offensive. The assessment is accurate. I used to think computers 'degraded' and got slower and worse over time. It always seemed weird to me since logically, the silicon is there. However, when you run a proper operating system, there's no degradation. It's a software problem in its entirety. Nixos has kept my laptop running for almost a decade at this point with no performance degradation. I am only considering upgrading due to fundamental hardware constraints, but the machine itself is fine and still snappy.