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The whole juggernaut that is now Linux on Dell started as the brainchild of two core individuals, Barton George (Senior Principal Engineer) and Jared Dominguez (OS Architect and Linux Engineer).
It was their vision that began it all back in 2012. It was long hours, uncertain futures and sheer belief that people really did want Linux laptops that sustained them. Here is the untold story of how Dell gained the top spot in preinstalled Linux on laptops.
[...] This first attempt at Linux on laptops failed mainly because most non-technical users were blinded by the cheap price and didn't understand what they were actually buying.
[...] This time the duo had the right initial market. It was big, commercial web-scale operators and their developers who were crying out for a fully supported Linux laptop.
People who do technical work, like Linux. People who don't, don't.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @08:17PM (6 children)
You don't even need to buy a new license to reinstall Windows on a laptop that came with preinstalled with Windows. The computer comes with a license.
On older versions (Windows 7 and older) you had to do phone activation when using the OEM key from the sticker (which was easy enough) but newer versions have the license stored in nvram so it "just works" (although I assume this makes it harder to transfer the license to another computer, which was possible before).
Even better is to install a free operating system.
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Friday November 17 2017, @09:13PM (5 children)
Allegedly, once activated, the license is tied to bits of the hardware config (and the pairing is stored on MS servers) - change too much and it doesn't just work anymore. Change the motherboard and I think you are guaranteed to need to ring up and beg - officially I think you need to buy a new license (but even MS knows that is stupid and that if you've just had to warranty-replace the motherboard you shouldn't be out the cost of a license).
Some OEM license keys are allegedly locked to the BIOS so they'll only work on machines from that OEM (or that model), however I have also seen said allegedly locked OEM keys work absolutely fine on new custom build gaming rigs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @09:33PM
I had a computer motherboard die on me at work. I bought the parts for a new system (SuperMicro chassis, new motherboard, etc.), but no OS. I wanted to just install a clean copy of Win7 and activate it with the license key that was on the chassis of the computer that died. I had an OEM install disk and I used that to load the software, but it wouldn't take the software key nor activate.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Saturday November 18 2017, @02:14AM (2 children)
For the record, I've never, ever, not once, been turned down by the clearinghouse when I called them. I did have an issue once, but it was a typo in the key relayed to me by a 3rd party (our fault).
They just activate it for you, Every. Single. Time.
Maybe I've been lucky, who knows.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 18 2017, @03:01AM
When Win 7 first came out it was in preview in technet while I was in school with access to tech net. I Installed it once but was having issues so I went to reinstall and it made me call the clearing house. Took me a while to explain to them that I was just fiddling with my own computer and was a student. They did eventually ok it though.
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Sunday November 19 2017, @01:16PM
Actually, nor have I. I have never had a licence transfer fail either. Stories of failure or refusal to activate are always hearsay or rumour at best.
Maybe I too have been lucky, but I don't have that much first-hand data, and I haven't actually been trying to do anything dodgy licence-wise.
However, every time I have to call because the automatic route has failed I get worried, I feel I have to plan my explanation / defence of my actions, and (see above) I don't think I'm doing anything I shouldn't be able to. And then I start to think, maybe I should be using a Free OS for this job... (and I shouldn't have to think that - if I am not doing anything wrong, surely the automatic route should just work).
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 18 2017, @12:22PM
OEM activation. Bit more to it than the marker in the BIOS (do a search for SLIC table) - you also need an MS-signed OEM certificate installed in the OS for the auto-activation to work this way. So of course, changing the motherboard breaks activation since you changed or lost one part. Unless you know how to and have the tools to add the correct marker to the new motherboard's BIOS, or it's already present in the new BIOS, plus you have a matching OEM certificate, you need to activate via another method or use a different licence. There are tools to extract the certificate part from existing working machines.
For Win7, there is no online part of the OEM activation, so as long as you have both the BIOS markers and the certificate matching, and use an OEM licence key in Windows for whichever edition you feel like using, it will activate regardless of hardware config. For virtual machines, the BIOS marker injection is easily done for some hypervisors like Xen or Virtualbox, so means unlimited activated Win7 copies in these environments. I'd expect KVM to be similarly easy. I've also heard it's possible to do this on VMWare/ESX/ESXi, but never done that myself. Also note the OEM licence key you put in Windows is not the same as what you find on stickers stuck to cases - the stickers are NOT OEM keys.
(Un)fortunately for Win8 and later, yes it all gets tied to hardware config and stored online on MS servers, so the above trick no longer works reliably if at all.