[Gllug] Linux invalidates your HP warranty

[Mike Brodbelt]

Chris Jones wrote:

> HP support a fixed set of OSes on their laptops at the moment. That set
> is basically the variants of Vista. They don't support Linux on their
> laptops, nor have they claimed to and if you phone them up and ask for
> it, they'll say no or ask you to order a very large number of units.
> 
> How is it so difficult to then grasp that they won't support other OSes
> on their laptops?

I don't think it is, however it should be completely clear that a 
refusal by HP to support software that they have not chosen to provide 
does not in any way release them from their obligation to support the 
hardware they have provided, regardless of the software the end user 
chooses to execute using that hardware.

I don't have any problem with HP not supporting Linux. My personal 
experience with vendor software support suggests that such support is 
worthless anyway, so I don't really care. Where I do have a problem is 
when the vendor tries to use software as an excuse to wriggle out of 
their obligations regarding the hardware. HP do appear to have backed 
away from this recently, so maybe they've got the message that that was 
bad PR. FWIW, I don't think Windows power users are much better off here 
- I'm sure many wasted hours have been spent reinstalling Windows 
software after an often unnecessary reset to factory state. In fact 
recovering the state of installed software on a Windows machine is 
substantially harder than on Linux, as the endless activation schemes 
and non-scriptable user preferences make it a truly unpleasant experience.

Mike
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