[joejohnson]

...when I talk with OEMs and others about Linux pre-loads, I commonly [sic] here a "significant percentage" of these Linux pre-loaded systems usually get wiped by their customers and replaced with pirated copies of Windows -- especially in the Asian markets, where customers are just going after the Linux PCs due to the lower sales cost.

Can anyone confirm this?

[fierarul]

In Romania it's common practice to sell cheaper laptops running FreeDOS or some Linux (say, Acer with Linpus) with the expectation that people are just going to wipe it and install a pirated Windows on it.

If you look at the online review for them, the first remark people have is about how Windows drivers are hard to find. Or they ask about the Windows score.

I once called the Samsung hotline asking about Linux support for a laptop they were selling with FreeDOS and the answer was that they only collaborate with Microsoft.

Otoh, it is actually quite hard to find a laptop that's Linux certified. We bought a HP ProBook just because it was certified although it came with Suse.

[dgudkov]

Not that hard. E.g. http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/desktop/

From my experience -- ThinkPads usually work quite smoothly with popular linux distros.

[fierarul]

Oh, it's not hard to find which model is certified. It's hard to actually find it selling in a store!

Also, I don't want to buy a ThinkPad if I have to buy it with Windows then wipe that.

So my choices are laptops that come with FreeDOS or Linux and that are actually certified for Linux. Because, rumor has it, even some laptops that do come with Linux don't have proper Linux support for all their components -- they are built with the assumption of a Windows install.

At this point you don't have that many choices and if you also want a particular hardware configuration (say, i5) the choice narrows down a lot.