You’re installing an operating system though, that’s irrelevant. You’re telling me the people that want their laptop to come with no OS because they want to install their favourite version of Linux because they’re “l33t haxors” can’t tell the difference between broken hardware and incompatible drivers? And they’re installing Linux? Where drivers are one of the biggest issues?

Why can’t you?

You think big corporations are just letting everyone work on their personal devices because Covid happened? Lol. Tell me you’ve never worked in a decently sized business without telling me.

Office365 still has local installs you pencil. That’s the version almost everyone uses. It’s more feature rich, more performant, and significantly easier to do integrations with other programs. You clearly have never had anything to do with this space. I have, and I can tell you that you’re very, very wrong. Covid just changed where people work from, not what devices they worked from - and even then, most big businesses have returned most of their employees to the office.

The kind of businesses that just use a machine with a browser are non-technical ones. They’re customer care, they’re assistants, etc. BA’s, QA’s, Project Managers, devs, systems, dba’s, finance, etc all use powerful devices with local installs of software.

Since the pandemic? Huh? You think everyone switched to web apps since the pandemic? Based on what and why?

Seriously, I’m struggling to understand what out of what we’re talking about has anything to do with the pandemic lol

Which arguments stopped being true last decade?

Probably QA tbh. Other than that I’d think it would be plugging some of the delicate ribbon connectors in.

That’s wrong, sorry. More people are more computer literate now than at any point in history since computers are a significant part of almost everyone’s life now.

The “problem” with Linux is that even if it was as easy to use as Windows, which it definitely is not even close, it doesn’t support most of the most frequently used software that people use, from productivity to gaming. It’s making strides in gaming at least, but until valve gets a solution for all the anti-cheat stuff, it will never get off the ground. Fortnite? No Linux. COD? No Linux.

For productivity the alternatives to all the MS software range from “possibly as good as or better” to “definitely noticeably worse”, but the biggest problem is the fact that the interconnectivity between all the apps and other products isn’t there. Microsoft have insanely granular integration across almost all of their products, and people’s workflows often depend on it. Not to mention the thousands of other programs that are Windows only.

Most people over 25 that aren’t tech savvy have been moved to exclusively use web apps

Nah, not true at all, especially not in the corporate or business world.

The numbers don’t lie. No matter how many people know about Linux, they just don’t want to use it. It makes almost everything needlessly harder than it needs to be for them.

Out of windows and linux, it’d be close to 99%. Linux’s desktop OS marketshare is 4% according to a quick google, Windows at ~70%, MacOS at ~26%. Since MacOS isn’t an option on these, the choice between Windows and Linux would likely be 96% Windows, 4% Linux.

So sure, I’ll admit I got that wrong - not 99%, 96% based on 2025 marketshare.

Everything about devices like these is done without employees manually doing stuff on them.

For someone that wants to install their own OS, it coming with an OS installed by default is 100% irrelevant because you’d be plugging in a bootable drive on first boot up anyway.

When demand is there, which it currently isn’t, has never been, and won’t be in the foreseeable future.

Have a look at Linux’s market share over the last few decades. There’s your answer.

If they could ship a computer with the option upon first boot of Windows, Linux, or no OS without having to pay license costs of Windows that would be fine, but that’s not how it works. 99% of people want Windows. Any laptop shipping with no os would just be sent back a few months later after sitting on the shelves for a few months.

Next headline: “Lenovo discontinues offering Linux laptops due to minuscule sales and almost as many returns”