[fapjacks]

I should clarify that here I'm not talking about Microsoft's hardware like the Surface. I'm talking about being able to buy a computer from a manufacturer without having to pay $99 for an installation of Microsoft Windows that I explicitly do not want. Some effort was made to stop this practice (of MS paying manufacturers not to offer machines without Windows), but it clearly didn't go very far in solving the problem. Either you're going to pay for a copy of MS Windows, or you're going to build your own machine (or pay about as much as Apple hardware costs from "specialty" hardware retailers). And to answer your question, I bring this up because I find it difficult to point fingers at Google for the same behavior without bringing up an example of a company that is flatly getting away with murder.

[jasonlotito]

> I'm talking about being able to buy a computer from a manufacturer without having to pay $99 for an installation of Microsoft Windows that I explicitly do not want.

You can. You are not limited to specialty outfits as well, nor are you required to pay a lot for it, or any of the other numerous criteria you try to add on as well. Being able to buy a PC without paying for Windows or paying for an Apple product is incredibly easy for the average person today.

[fapjacks]

No, you are shoehorned into buying a very specific model. It should be no problem whatsoever to choose any model on that site, and select "Ubuntu" for the OS, but you can't. If you go and look (and here I mean actually go and look[0]), the vast majority of machines that you can buy do not have the option to not pay for a Windows license. The choice you get is "Windows 8.1 or Windows 10".

[0] http://www.dell.com/us/p/laptops/xps-laptops

[dump100]

that is a choice Dell has made based of customer demand, sales and is no longer forced by MS to do so. MS tried this in 90s and it was major issue in the antitrust investigation

[fapjacks]

... And clearly today, as well.

[ocdtrekkie]

Dell actually has multiple lines of their products that they sell with officially supported Ubuntu now. And you don't pay for the Windows license, so you save a few bucks.