The last two laptops I've purchased have been the same model as dell's 'developer editions' that came with linux preinstalled. Ironically I bought them with windows both times because the windows versions were on sale for like 25% off while the true 'developer editions' were still full price.
First thing I did was format them and install linux. My mom has my laptop from 2008 and it's still going strong with a lightweight mint xfce distro.
My guess is the reason for this is the lower default prize displayed, since in some regions they have to include the OS price in the total (or deduct it when you don't want it).
> Doesn't change the fact that they're (perceived as) useless for nearly all business use cases.
That seems like the OEMs choice? Valve doesn't seem to be struggling with marketing non Windows for a usecase that was seen as "unsupported" until they came along.
First thing I did was format them and install linux. My mom has my laptop from 2008 and it's still going strong with a lightweight mint xfce distro.