anti-Linux Policy at HP

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: I. Khider <contact-uc+NVM1kvX9BDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org>

| I was about to purchase a business class HP laptop when the product
| information specialist informed me ALL HARDWARE WARRANTIES ARE VOID THE
| SECOND YOU INSTALL LINUX.

Unless it says that in the actual warranty, I imagine that this position
is unsupportable.

On the other hand, what tech support says is, in a practical sense,
effectively how things go.

For example, I have an Acer notebook.  The published specs say that it
can handle up to 4G of RAM.  In fact it cannot.  Evidence suggests
taht this is a BIOS bug.  I have found no way to deal with this
through their support system.  I'm unwilling to use the court system.

I've not really had great experience with warranty support when the
problem is not with my particular machine but with all of them.  The
best that they know how to do is give you a replacement and if the
replacement is going to have the same flaw, what is the point?

Unfortunately, tech support and engineering just don't talk for
consumer products or services.

| My first impression was that I was speaking to
| a under-trained call centre op so asked to speak with someone else.
| After speaking with four reps, two technicians, and the client relations
| department, I realized it was their policy. I sent a polite and
| constructive e-mail to HP President Mark Hurd to reconsider this policy.
| His office sent me an e-mail and said they are reviewing my request. 

A reasonable position (from their standpoint) would be if the problem
cannot be demonstrated in Windows, then it isn't a problem.  They may
feel that they don't have the resources to support other OSes.

I actually think that "PCness" is sufficiently well defined that you
could find hardware to be out of spec. without Windows tripping over
the problem.

| One technician offered a work-around, in case of a hardware defect,
| re-install Windows and send it in. So, in case of a defective power
| supply or CPU fan, how does one install Windows?

I always leave MS Windows on the systems that I buy with Windows (hard
to avoid).  This may be stupid but it does let me apply firmware
updates that are delivered as Windows packages.

| Personally, I would like to take this issue to the papers. 

HP has (had?) internal Linux advocates who might help first.  Bdale
Garbee
  http://www.gag.com/~bdale/
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bdale_Garbee
told me some years ago that the consumer-class stuff had no Linux
support but that business-class was more likely to.

The "papers" are particularly bad at this kind of thing.

| My case number with HP is #80216227703

Can we do anything with this number?  I assume that we cannot due to
privacy concerns.
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