this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
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You paid the markup when buying hardware with OEM license though.
Not if I've never bought a prebuilt PC.
Not even a laptop?
system76 let's go
You only need laptops if you actually leave your home.
Nope. Never bothered with a laptop until work provided me with one.
Cant say for them, but I've never owned a laptop until about 6 months ago, and thats used enterprise hardware off ebay.
What did you get? Iβm interested but not really sure what to look for in that niche
HP zbook 17 G6. Big, thiccc, can take a 2.5 inch drive AND a slim disk drive (but it might be hard to find the front/bezel piece to use one properly), and 2/3 m.2 slots (i think sata might be disabled if i use one?)
No soldered ram BS, and I've got an 8c/16t xeon. I spent about $300. G6 and G5 only difference is the processor IIRC
I owned only MacBooks and not pre-built PCs, so itβs the same for me. Never bought a single Windows license, even the OEM one.
Never bought a Windows license⦠But happily paid the Apple Tax.
Theyβre the same picture.
I paid my sins, father! Now all my MacBooks are on Linux! All of them!
Probably depends on the store, but the 2 times I bought a laptop in my life, both stores had a No OS option in the drop-down, which brought the price down. (One actually came with no OS, the other came with FreeDOS IIRC for some reason)
Yep, and not a small price at that. While the home license is not as expensive, it's still mid two digits. IIRC pro version typically costs around 100 β¬ even as the bundled OEM license, especially if you're buying a laptop from a smaller manufacturer. That's the amount I remember the price going down if you drop windows licensing from a corporate laptop lease.
In any way it's not an insignificant price.
The OEM license price is also based on the performance of the PC (specifically the CPU iirc). Low powered devices might get a OEM home license for only $30, but a OEM home license for a gaming PC is going to be more like $80-90. Pro licenses will be more of course.
Makes sense, there wouldn't be many 200-300 β¬ laptops if Windows cost 80-100 β¬ for them.
You're forgetting piracy. I didn't buy any parts with OEM licenses. Granted I went grey market for my Windows 10 so I paid someone like $20.
doesnt microsoft offer the OS for free?
I don't know all the details, but you can buy Windows 11 from them still. An "upgrade" from 10 to 11 may be free, at least that's what the world's most annoying pop-up was telling me before I switched to Linux.
microsoft offers the ISO for free on the website
you will get transparent text telling you to activate windows in a corner, but that is easy to get rid of
That's not exactly the same as them offering the whole OS for free. That's basically a trial version. The "Activate Windows" message is stuck there and it will bug you with reminders to activate all the time. Their intent is for you to purchase a key from them. Any other method to remove the message and activate Windows that does not involve paying them money is against their terms of service.
Saying that's Windows offering the OS for free is like saying you can get free books from a library if you just don't return them. It goes against the intent of the service.
from my experience, someone offering windows for a cheaper price meant installing it with the message
also, isnt it common for software to offer a free version with a watermark and a paid version without a watermark?
If you paid someone for Windows and still had the activate message then they ripped you off.
While some softwares have free versions, unactivated Windows isn't that. Free versions are typically feature-limited, or serve up ads to cover the cost. More importantly they are intended to be free and offered as such. Unactivated Windows is a paid product that hasn't had the proof of purchase (product key) applied yet. Microsoft has hitherto been lax about enforcement, at least against non-enterprise users, but it is still against their terms of service to continue to use Windows without providing a key.
Like, sure you can get it and install it for free, but that doesn't mean it's a "Free Version" in any official sense. If it was indeed a free version then they wouldn't pester you to activate, they would clearly state it's a Free version, and the activate watermark wouldn't be there.
This is digging deeper into my youth, so take this with a grain of salt, but I'm pretty sure older versions of Windows were different. I remember having to provide the product key during the installation of Vista way back when. Before I ever saw the desktop. This is when Windows came in a box from a physical store. Nowadays with online purchases it makes sense to provide a level of computer functionality so users can access the online store.
At least nowadays it's so much easier to find FreeDOS laptops. I remember that it was not a thing here 20 years ago, and Windows was included in the warranty so you couldn't remove it for at least 2 years (if you care about warranty).
Aye, I did buy a prebuilt once in 2004.
Damn, Microslop's got you by the balls.
Nah, not for me. I have only built my own PC's since 2006. If i had a laptop (and a few surfaces) it was through work.
I know all about the OEM license thats now hardcoded on the board due to my job. Our company was buying devices with windows, essentially paying more per device, then imaging them with our image with an enterprise license...
Yes, but no. They know you'll pay (e.g.) $700 for a PC. If windows were free, you'd still be paying $700. It would just go to a different billionaire.