Taking HP to the BBB...?

[I. Khider]

Hello Evan, 

Just an update on the Windows tax and Linux warranty backing. So far the
sales team at HP have not confirmed Bob's claim that Hardware Warranty
is backed if one installs Linux. But I am sure they will be told
eventually. 

The second part is HP insists I buy the computer with Windows as they
are powerless to remove the operating system. I called Microsoft and
spoke with a helpful fellow named Storey (who uses Suse linux at home)
who showed me the link to the Micorsoft end user license agreement 

http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/productrefund/hardwarr.mspx
 
and Microsoft legal who must be contacted by fax 1-425-706-7409 

Storey said legal would help me deal with HP if the latter refused to
remove windows, or would help remove the OS if HP was powerless to do
so. 

With regards to hardware diagnostics, I could switch to Ubuntu to test
the wireless devices et al as I have a support contract with Canonical.
It is no biggie to operate outside the wonderful world of Windows. 

Bob quoted $100 for the Windows OS, maybe chump change to you but that's
a lot of coffee money to me. 

; - )

Sure it's a royal pain to go through this, but someone has gotta clear
the way for Linux users. I know of at least one other Linux user who
plans to buy an HP laptop in the next couple of months. He should be
able to ask for a warranty and removal of Windows without hassle. 

As long as a Linux customer gets hassle from sales at HP or any
corporation, the latter is anti-linux in my books. They may display all
sorts of public acts about how nice and Linux friendly they are, but
they should be 100% pro Linux or not at all. 50 or 60% or whatever is
not good enough.  

-ib-



On Tue, 2009-02-24 at 10:55 -0500, Evan Leibovitch wrote:

> I. Khider wrote:
> > Richard Weait was super-helpful by introducing me Bob Gobeille who 
> > works at the HP Open Source Program Office. Bob spoke with the World 
> > Directory at HP and got them to change the warranty policy on HP 
> > products for Linux users. This means that HP, like Toshiba, Averatec, 
> > Asus, et al will fully back their hardware warranty for servicing if 
> > Linux is installed. Bob informed me that a circular was passed down to 
> > HP call centre managers to spread the good word for Linux users.
> Good to see this is resolving well. Certainly HP as a company was not 
> completely badmouthing Linux; they appear to have invested 
> significantly, for instance, in a unique Ubuntu-based netbook user 
> interface -- http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS7556806272.html
> 
> HP servers certainly support Red Hat and SuSE, and their Linux printer 
> support is the best in the industry. So it was a matter of one arm of HP 
> that was acting badly. A company-wide complaint would have been not only 
> pointless but lacking credibility.
> 
> > Of course, Jamon spoiled the victory when he posted about how I can 
> > get a refund on the Windows OS. (Those Linux users, give 'em an inch 
> > and they want a kilometer! ) Now I will settle for nothing less than 
> > complete removal of the Windows OS AND an OS refund with the machine 
> > upon purchase.
> The refund is usually very small, considering the small amount OEMs pay 
> for their copies (and especially if those copies are subsidized by 
> pre-loaded trials of antivirus, etc).
> 
> Besides, often companies will put useful hardware diagnostics on their 
> Windows partitions. If some hardware fails to work under Linux, booting 
> to Windows is helpful in tracing whether it's a driver or software problem.
> 
> (For instance: a recent kernel update -- 2.6.27-11 -- broke the driver 
> for the Realtek Ethernet chipset, a very common one in laptops.)
> 
> Certainly booting Windows will help you with the helpdesk...
> 
> If a system doesn't ship with Windows I won't load it. But if it DOES 
> ship with it I just reduce its partition size to about 6GB, put Linux on 
> the rest, and set it up for dual boot. Getting the money back in the 
> past has usually not been worth the hassle and the Windows partition 
> just might come in handy -- if you already have it.
> 
> > This is great information and I will spread it to other Linux users I 
> > know to ensure they do not pay the Windows tax.
> 
> If your time has any value at all you'll be paying more than double that 
> tax to ask for the refund.
> 
> - Evan
> 
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