[Gllug] Getting Microsoft off a Dell purchase - anyone done this?

[Ian Northeast]

Richard Turner wrote:
> On Wed, 2006-07-05 at 18:49 +0100, M.Blackmore wrote:
> 
>>Getting Microsoft off a Dell purchase - anyone done this?
>>Any one had any luck getting a Dell out of Michael of that ilk WITHOUT
>>the Microsnot crap upon it? I've a legit untied copy of XP Pro doing
>>nowt if I want to dual boot it (haven't had windows running for a couple
>>of months now, and then only to pull some old wordprocessing files out
>>of an old wp format) and probably don't want to install that anyway.
>>
>>HOW do I get them to take more dosh off? Its XP Home, which I consider
>>even more useless than Pro. I installed Pro a few months ago for the
>>first time in a few years, and thought it was dire, and the installation
>>process was an utter pain in driver hell etc.
>>
>>Any tips or precedents anyone know of?
> 
> 
> I'm pretty certain that Dell can't do this - they have an OEM deal with
> Microsoft so they can't sell PCs without Windows pre-installed: it'd
> breach their contract with MS.

I think it's about 3 years ago now but a colleague did once succeed, 
after many phone calls, in getting a discount on a Dell laptop because 
he didn't want Windows on it. The discount was about 50 quid and I 
seriously doubt it was worth the aggro but he managed it. Whether you 
can do this now I really do not know.

And Dell delivered a copy of Windows with the laptop:) It seems that it 
wasn't worth their while to make up a special order. I suggested to him 
that he sell it on eBay but he considered this unethical, on the grounds 
that he did not wish to inflict Windows on an innocent buyer.

Regards, Ian

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