[pm90]

I don't know the backstory on this....does Dell pay much less than the full price? How much less?

[commandar]

When people have managed to get refunds for preinstalled Windows licenses from major OEMs, the number's generally been in the $35-50 range.

Keep in mind that the manufacturers also subsidize the cost of systems with all the preinstalled crapware that comes on a lot of machines.

[technomancy]

The OEM agreement prevents the exact numbers from being disclosed, but I believe it's common knowledge that it's quite small; probably well under USD50 for a company like Dell.