HP moving to Linux as standard OS for laptops. Windows is a optional extra cost.

[pware]

I came across this YouTube video last night.

Summary for those who do not have the time to watch the video (about 19 minutes),

HP, the second largest PC manufacturer, is dropping Windows from its laptops in favour of Linux. Windows will still be available on HP laptops but you have to specifically request it and pay an additional fee.

Other manufacturers, Dell and ASUS, have been offering Linux as an alternative to the default Windows install. They are, reportedly, also considering making the switch to Linux as the default.

The reasons:-

• Microsoft charges a royalty fee for each install of Windows. Linux does not.
• Windows requires more advanced (and more expensive) built-in hardware - e.g. TPM 2.0
• Windows comes with bloatware that many (most??) users do not want
• Windows updates are causing problems to users

HP ran an extensive trial in 2025 with Linux installed as an alternative to Windows for customers. They noted that the Linux laptops:-

• had far fewer % "faulty machine" returns from dissatisfied customers than Windows laptops
• generated far fewer % calls to HP customer support than Windows laptops

Some of the above two points may be due to the Linux option in the trial being chosen by more users who were already experienced with Linux.

HP noted that many of the complaints they received from Windows customers should have been directed at Microsoft, not HP, but HP had to bear the time and cost of dealing with the complaints.

I have "dabbled" in Linux over the years, usually on old Windows laptops that were about to be "retired". I have one laptop that is approaching that point so I may try my hand again with one of the latest distros. I have a few software packages that will only run on Windows, Trainz being one (yes I know that it will "almost run" on Linux) but my Office suite, Libre Office, has a Linux version.

 

[johnwhelan]

Lenovo have been offering unix at a lower cost than windows for some time. Their experience has been lower returns, fewer customer support calls, cost savings about $100 per unit. Also Linux runs happily with 4 gigs of memory, windows needs 8 for reasonable performance.

So yes Trainz is a problem but the rest of the world seems happy on Linux.

Cheerio John

 

[wreeder]

Outside of Linux installs on Internet servers, Linux desktop installs represent less than 2% of OS installs. As far as hardware compatibility is concerned, You'll have more luck with DOS 6.2.2 and Win95. Tons more free software too.

BTW, HP's biggest customer by far is the US Government. They run a custom blend of Windows designed just for their needs.

 

[wilts747]

The problem with Linux is perception. A few year ago you picked up an Android phone or a Chromebook and within 20 minutes you were an expert, an hour previously you had never hear of the thing. Linux had, and in may respects still has, a reputation of being difficult, and being truthful it was, but fortunately things have changed and in most part for the better.

Unfortunately the development of Linux, and other OS, on the desktop has been hampered by the monopoly of Microsoft. Over the past 40-50 years Microsoft has done everything it's power to maintain its monopoly by absorbing any development companies that might challenge its dominance, pressurize hardware manufacturers into opting for Windows as their OS, and likely more to prevent any form of competition.

However things are changing, and in most parts drive by the attitude of Microsoft themselves. I dumped Windows completely 2-3 years ago when Windows said none of my computers would ever run Win 11, so within a month I replaced Win 10 with Linux Mint on all my machines. No dual boot because I knew I'd switch between Mint and Windows if I got stuck, and have never looked back. I had used Linux previously and yes I've had issues but far fewer than even did with Windows and that's why I think like myself and others users, hardware manufacturers are beginning to think in a similar way.

It doesn't matter how good you manufacture a product if the OS lets you down the customer perceives it as rubbish. When you have customers uninstalling Win 11 and replacing it with Win 10 then paying Microsoft £30 (UK price) for support there is a problem. Linux may not be perfect or the solution for all, but at least the hardware manufacturers are doing more in an attempt to satisfy their customers than Microsoft ever has in these past few years. Peter

 

[KotangaGirl]

After using Linux for the past two years or so I have to grit my teeth every time I start up my Surface Go that's running Win 11.
In Win 11 everything is just so maddening difficult after using Linux.

 

[jaredvazquez012]

I plan on migrating to Linux once I obtain all the parts to build my own computer. My current daily driver is a refurbished Dell Optiplex machine running Windows 10 with an AMD Radeon RX6400 GPU installed, and it runs TRS19 and TRS22 decently. I might consider replacing its OS to Linux once I familiarize myself with it to use for my other hobbies (chiptune music creation and digital art). I also have a laptop that I use for online college that has Windows 11, and I may consider replacing that with Linux as well after I graduate.

 

[pdkoester]

I have an HP laptop from work. It was retired because it cannot load Windows 11. Moved it to Linux Ubuntu LTS. No regrets, about as easy to maneuver as Windows, Mac OS, etc., since it is not used for any gaming. Everything works, including Bluetooth Camera & Wi-Fi. It has an App store, and easy method to install add-ons. The difficulty would be in trying to get anything from Windows to work on it, but then that would defeat the point. Just run Linux version or equivalent. I even found Microsoft Edge for Linux works fine.

 

[HiBaller]

My position is once Trainz is ported to Linux, I will dropkick my Windows off my gaming computer and go to Linux Mint as I have on all my other computers. I have no other use for Windows.

Bill

 

[JCitron]

My position is once Trainz is ported to Linux, I will dropkick my Windows off my gaming computer and go to Linux Mint as I have on all my other computers. I have no other use for Windows.

Bill

With the growing Linux market, N3V should put some serious effort into a Linux version. They mentioned at one time that they were looking into it but not to expect anything anytime soon. With that said, now is the time to stop looking and start putting some eggs into that basket.

I'm waiting this out as well. My desktop has Trainz on it and other applications that can't run on any other platform currently without going through hoops or at all. Once these get ported over, I'll switch and not look back. I've used Solaris and Linux in various flavors before and recently I've been running Zorin Linux in a Virtual Box VM to test it. Out of all of the Linux distros I've tested, this one is the slowest even with the 32 GB of RAM and multiple CPU cores allocated to it. Linux has gotten a lot easier to use since those earlier days.

My other machine with my music software on it is running Windows 10. I never bothered with the Microsoft Software support for it. It's not a daily driver machine and I only connect it to the internet when I need to keep licenses active and for software updates. I don't browse the internet on it or use it for anything else except as a music editor and MIDI controller for my Roland LX-17 digital grand.

At this time, there is no software updated available for the music editor Sibelius. If I didn't pay nearly $2500 for the software, I'd ditich it for something else.

 

[pware]

My past experiences with Linux, admittedly a few years ago new, were disappointing in the number of times that I had to drop from the GUI desktop to a DOS command-like interface to perform some basic tasks such as installing software. This almost always involved typing a string of nonsensical characters. I have not had to do the same in Windows for many, many years now.

I do hope that this has changed.

 

[JCitron]

My past experiences with Linux, admittedly a few years ago new, were disappointing in the number of times that I had to drop from the GUI desktop to a DOS command-like interface to perform some basic tasks such as installing software. This almost always involved typing a string of nonsensical characters. I have not had to do the same in Windows for many, many years now.

I do hope that this has changed.

This has definitely changed. It's no longer necessary to run sudo pkgmgr update or sudo app get from a terminal unless you want to. Sometimes you do need to run gunzip or tzarc to untar a tarball but that's rare. The newer flavors have software installers and OS update utilities and the versions I checked Zorin and Ubuntu do this automatically on startup.

 

[pcas1986]

My experiences with Linux are much the same as PWare. I've dabbled with Linux since the distros first started appearing as CDs stuck to the front of computing magazines. As I recall, Ubuntu was my preferred but there were others such as Red Hat. I also tried dual boot and VMs.

What I found was that the installation was easy but the moment you wanted something non standard installed it became exponentially difficult. I even used to keep a book of Unix commands handy so I could format commands correctly. A bit like getting out of your modern car and into Fred Flintstone's foot powered car. You really did need to be a Unix devotee to understand it all.

I dislike Windows mostly because of those "clever and new features" that we didn't want but some "human centred design" person decided were absolutely essentlal for modern day living and therefore we had to have. And then make it really difficult for users to remove.

What I'd really like is a bare bones Windows without all the rubbish. I understand it is available but not for us mere mortals.

I have an old PC under my desk with 32GB of RAM, an i9 CPU and an RTX2080Ti GPU. I'm toying with the idea of installing Linux on it to see if anything useful has changed.

Sometimes you do need to run gunzip or tzarc to untar a tarball but that's rare.

You're showing your geekyness John. I will confess I understood what you said.

 

[KotangaGirl]

I'm running Debian Bookworm 12,- first on my ancient 14 year old HP Zeon Z200, - and now on a recent production HP LH Z240 with an 8 core i7 processor. Both machines have/had 16Gb RAM. And on both machines Bookworm 12 just worked/works without any problems.
My wonderfully clever daughter has set things up so I get a notification when updates are available and it's just so plain easy to do the download and install.

Running Trainz is no problem, - I use Lutris and like it. Yes CM needs to be manually refreshed, but after doing it for the past couple of years I'm completely used to it now.

The only software I need Windows for is IM Editor, Irfanview and Paint.NET and I use a Surface Go running Win 11 () to do that. I have no use for a lumpen great Windows desktop computer anymore.

Bookworm 12 runs Sketchup 8 perfectly well and I also have an early version of Paint.NET called Pinta on Bookworm 12 as well. Not quite as good as Paint.NET, but still useful.
GIMP runs on Linux just fine and Blender 3.4.1 does too (not that I know how to use it).