At least in the U.S. and Canada, that is.
This was brought to my attention thanks to a Reddit post where a user (presumably a resident of Canada), had posted how Lenovo was shipping laptops with Fedora and Ubuntu at a cheaper price compared to their Windows-equipped counterparts.
Others then chimed in, saying that Lenovo has been doing this since at least 2020 and that the big price difference shows how ridiculous Windows’ pricing is.
When I dug in further, I found out that the US and Canadian websites for Lenovo offered U.S. $140 and CAD $211 off on the same ThinkPad X1 Carbon model when choosing any one of the Linux-based alternatives.
I think these manufacturers could do a better job in marketing these Linux-based alternative operating systems to general consumers, showing them how they can save big when opting for these instead of the pricey and bloated Windows.
Wow $140 USD is a lot for preinstalled windows IMO. 😱
Yeah I didn’t believe that amount, looked it up, and it looks like digital W11 Home keys are $139 USD directly from Microsoft.
I’m surprised manufacturers aren’t getting some sort of license discount.
They are, but likely not passing the savings on.
When Microsoft battled Android to sell their own phones, they demanded a $35 license fee for “Microsoft Patents” on Android!.
AFAIK that was about the same as a Windows OEM license! Just about every Android phone maker folded and agreed to pay!
So IDK Microsoft can be very aggressive in their license pricing. There are also different versions of Windows, and a multi language license is AFAIK more expensive.
Still for me it would be absolutely insane to pay that much, as I would just format it anyway, and install Linux. And with Linux I can use whatever language I want!
If I were to guess, I’d say they may get a discount but Lenovo could be reducing their margin to incentivize people away from Windows so they can stop paying out Windows licenses in the future.
That makes the most sense
Yeah, they only gave me like $50 or so off when I told them I didn’t want the Windows license. Granted, it shipped w/ Linux, so they likely still paid for the license, but still.
We had a campaign here several years ago, and $50 was the accepted rate most places.
I don’t think you can legally demand it anymore, but you used to be able to demand that windows was removed, and you were compensated for the price of the license.
Here in EU what made that possible was AFAIK regulation about anti competitive practices.
Problem is it’s never Microsoft that pays, it’s always the vendor or retailer.
Exactly. And my understanding is that they pay something close to the retail rate, whereas they get a discounted rate from Microsoft, so they’re getting shafted multiple ways.
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