I mentioned two of those above, and the third is one of the six I was thinking about (alongside System76 and Slimbook, etc; Pine is getting out of the game for the time being, iirc). I own a Framework and love it, but none of them are mid-range brands. None of them ship worldwide. Apple is…well, arguably worse than Microsoft, and they literally only have one mid-range laptop SKU. Likewise, Acer and HP (and maybe Dell?) each have, like, one laptop that will ship without an OS.
This is what I’m saying. Trying to buy a laptop without Windows installed means accepting that you’ll either be buying at a higher rung on the pricing ladder (not that it’s never worth it, but not everyone can afford to climb), or you’ll be buying a disposable machine.
Framework, Tuxedo, Apple are just some options.
I mentioned two of those above, and the third is one of the six I was thinking about (alongside System76 and Slimbook, etc; Pine is getting out of the game for the time being, iirc). I own a Framework and love it, but none of them are mid-range brands. None of them ship worldwide. Apple is…well, arguably worse than Microsoft, and they literally only have one mid-range laptop SKU. Likewise, Acer and HP (and maybe Dell?) each have, like, one laptop that will ship without an OS.
This is what I’m saying. Trying to buy a laptop without Windows installed means accepting that you’ll either be buying at a higher rung on the pricing ladder (not that it’s never worth it, but not everyone can afford to climb), or you’ll be buying a disposable machine.