In the last 15 years, I've never had a laptop that wouldn't run linux reasonably well. Sometimes some non-essential bits don't work right (suspend/hibernate, or fingerprint readers, etc) but I've had about the same chance of problems when I upgrade a laptop to Windows 10 from an older version.tepples wrote:How is that different in practice from needing the non-free Windows operating system to run your hardware drivers? This can happen when no laptops in your local Best Buy have a penguin logo to imply that free drivers are available for the hardware, and System76 (which specializes in Linux PCs) doesn't offer any laptops in your preferred form factor. ASUS T100 still has no suspend after years.
For a personal user, you're right. For all practical purposes, windows is usually "free-as-in-beer" for a home computer because of the way it's sold. That said, there are a few important places that it's not free, but linux is:Even if Windows is non-free as in speech, Linux is non-free as in beer because of increased hardware support cost for the manufacturer. Last I checked, the Dell XPS 13 with Windows cost $50 less than the same laptop with Ubuntu.
1. Used computers. I've bought used computers with no legal windows license, or something ancient like XP. To get a modern OS on them, I'll use linux since I don't want to pay for a modern version of windows.
2. Servers and VMs. If I want to run some web service on a windows server, that's going to cost me money for the OS. I can run a linux server without paying for the OS.