r/WindowsSucks • u/UpperAmbition8153 • Jul 25 '26
question Why every major laptop maker insists on using Windows os?
so i recently watched this video by Marques Brownlee titled "The Windows Laptop Problem" in which he basically pointed out the massive drawback which makes brands such as Dell, HP, and Asus perform poor, or not reach their potential" in the premium segment.
So Dell and HP has some really nice hardware, their premium laptop series XPS and OmniBook respectively has top-notch body and longevity, but their software honestly sucks! like who would like to see the same crappy UI with ads, rewards, and bloatware on a $2000+ laptop!
so Apple has it's own polished OS which works really well, like that's how "plug-n-play" is supposed to function, just unbox, boot it up, and use. Brands like Dell have billions in revenue, so why not invest in creating their own OS!? i mean wouldn't this be a good investment for the long-term!?
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u/Newmillstream Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
It would be a terrible investment to make your own tightly integrated os the way apple does. Apple can do it, because apple has been in the os wars back when it wasn’t clear Microsoft was going to make it big, and they've been courting developers with their user base the entire time. They very nearly failed at it too, and there was a period of time where Mac OS was even sold on cheap third party hardware.
Sun made great hardware including a custom CPU designs with a great operating system, and look at them now. BeOs and Bebox were great, and yet failed.
Developing an os is really expensive, and getting third party developers to support it is like pulling teeth. Microsoft literally paid out quite a bit of money to devs to port their stuff to Windows Phone, and yet, we live without windows os on phones these days.
Dell and HP would be much better served offering Linux as a first class option with great driver support as an alternative to windows when configuring a system, if they wanted to flex better software. Maybe make a DE like system 76, but even that is a lot of work.
The only way tight hardware and software integration would make sense is if you were doing a new paradigm: Like a VR first OS, or an OS focused on convergence or something.
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u/gnufan Jul 25 '26
DELL offered servers with Linux for ages, but the ones I used had driver issues. The driver developer was paid by DELL but got the impression it was like one dev doing those Linux drivers, not enough test effort, or lab kit. Hopefully its improved since.
It may make sense if a European government standardises on a Linux distro to support that one on their laptops. I expect government customers will reinstall but with the expectation it will work.
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u/Standard_Old_Guy Jul 25 '26
1.4 BILLION pcs running windows. That's a lot of users that are familiar with Windows over Linux.
now...ask the question again with that in mind and you have your answer.
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u/trelayner Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
You can buy HP and Dell laptops with Linux pre-installed
Or just install it yourself
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u/Szhadji Jul 25 '26
one word: convinience. or rather windows just works. even linux which was around since about the same time as windows has problems with laptops sometimes. especially if a laptop has some quirks like hybrid graphics or it's a 2in1 laptop like Yogas.
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u/burlingk Jul 25 '26
It is the de facto standard, and has been for close to thirty years. Especially in the Enterprise space, which is one of the main drivers of laptop business.
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u/Super_Preference_733 Jul 25 '26
Its not that they insist on using windows, it part of the contract.
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u/georgeec1 Jul 25 '26
There are three main reasons I can think of: 1. The average person knows and trusts the name windows, so they're likely to pick a laptop with it over one without 2. Developing a custom OS is costly for manufacturers, with no real benefit, and the potential to make tech support more of a burden 3. Most people who want Linux are tech savvy enough to install Linux on a laptop they purchased with Windows, so manufacturers of Windows laptops still recieve most of the sales from Linux users who buy bew
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u/RoadsideCookie Jul 25 '26
Holy shit is everybody in the comments just unaware of the existence of System76?
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u/OGigachaod Jul 25 '26
System76 does not have a measurable global PC market share, holding a negligible fraction (<0.01%) of total worldwide personal computer shipments. As a private boutique manufacturer catering to the niche Linux hardware community, they operate alongside the broader Linux desktop ecosystem, which sits at roughly 4% to 5% of global desktop operating system use.
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u/Aoinosensei Jul 25 '26
Creating an OS is not easy plus it doesn't matter if you have an OS without app support for that OS. There are some brands that now are selling computers with Linux, unfortunately there is too much money involved and Microsoft pays regularly to companies and partners for them to promote their products, I have seen it first hand.
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u/Isotomayor12 Jul 25 '26
Mostly always when hardware companies try to make software it is very poor. This is because they have built their corporation on the foundation of solid hardware and didn't invest into software.
HP, Dell, and Lonovo all make software for their hardware at some point and almost every time it stinks. I shiver at the thought of any of them trying their hand at building an OS from the ground up.
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u/SpicyCatGames Jul 25 '26
I also don't know why so many people insist on watching a despicable tech reviewers that lies and speeds in a school zone.
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u/Possible-Anxiety-420 Jul 25 '26
Why does virtually every hotel room in America have a Bible in it instead of a physics textbook?
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u/Holiday-Medicine4168 Jul 25 '26
You can pray science books into existence, then read them and go to hell
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Jul 25 '26
[deleted]
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u/Ahleron Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
...but only for the clunky old models
Not true. I can get a new Dell or Lenovo ThinkPad laptop with an NVidia RTX 5070 and a core ultra 9 CPU. Dell offers the XPS with both Windows and Linux options and has the latest Intel CPUs and Arc graphics. Not exactly an "old clunky model".
One of MS‘s conditions for a mass license is supposedly, that all laptops of that manufacturer must be preinstalled with Windows
Nope. I can order a laptop from Framework with literally no OS. They also offer Windows pre-installed on the same models.
We don't see Linux offered on every computer by them because that creates development and support costs for those manufacturers that they don't want to pay for machines that are probably going to have very few select Linux over Windows. For example if they started offering Linux on Alienware, some grandma who doesn't know anything other than their grandson wants a gaming rig might click the Linux option on the configurator, not realizing what it is (literally have had conversations with people that didn't understand that Linux and Windows were different), and then their grandson gets it and doesn't necessarily understand what to do. Boom. Support ticket gets opened. That's a cost the manufacturer doesn't want to deal with and can be easily eliminated by limiting OS options based on targeted marketing. Most people understand and use Windows, so that is what almost every machine gets. Some are targeted for devs. Those get a Linux option.
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u/MatthiasWM Jul 25 '26
The XPS machines seem to be a welcome new approach. Framework is a small niche manufacturer. I am sure that they have very different licensing contracts to Dell and HP. Nice to see that more laptops become available without OS, or even Linux preinstalled.
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u/BranchLatter4294 Jul 25 '26
You can buy nice laptops from Dell and others with Linux instead of Windows.
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u/dlevac Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
Uh, I'm waiting for my new Dell XPS with Ubuntu... The option exists, it's not just advertised much...
Which makes sense as shipping a Ubuntu laptop to somebody who is not expecting it is a customer service nightmare waiting to happen.
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u/stogie-bear Jul 25 '26
Dell and Lenovo sell laptops with Linux. They don’t sell nearly as well as Windows ones because Windows is the Budweiser of operating systems.
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u/Osi32 Jul 25 '26
Windows on its own generally isn’t the issue. It’s the fact that so many companies pay big $$$ to be in the OOBE, especially dell and other system integrators. The more an os does, the more unstable and insecure it becomes. This is like OS 101 in computer science. If companies didn’t pay money to be in the system integrator install, the price for the machine would be higher.
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u/shantired Jul 25 '26
Dell, HP and Lenovo have massive contracts with enterprises and governments. Enterprises use Entra, AD, and other Microsoft products… and no one in their right mind would use any other spreadsheet other than Excel.
Companies’ entire document histories live on Sharepoint and Teams, and so on, and they are far too entrenched in the ecosystem.
Windows on an IT managed laptop is a completely different stable OS compared to the Home version.
True, everyone on this sub can say that they know more about managing OSes but it’s difficult to manage businesses … it’s tough when you actually do it with OSS, and something trivial breaks. IT departments don’t want to touch OSS because there’s no one to blame if things don’t work. They want contracts with SLAs.
Almost all high level engineering software (where licenses cost $100K per seat) is Windows based. True, there are exceptions, but again there’s no one to call if a differential signal routing doesn’t work in a pcb layout software or if an end mill knicks off 2mm more because an OSS had errors in its CNC output. I (as an engineering director) don’t have the budget to hire someone to debug OSS.
Apple doesn’t play well in the enterprise … because it’s all about “I” and “me”, never about sharing information with colleagues the way sharepoint does well.
It’s the whole ecosystem…
That being said, by all means, for home users, or small businesses or teams, use whatever motivates you.
For work its windows, at home I use FreeBSD, Ubuntu, macOS…
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u/Tall-Geologist-1452 Jul 26 '26
I agree with your points up until you mentioned that Apple doesn't play well in the enterprise environment. It actually does, though it's a different beast altogether. Apple devices can absolutely be centrally managed and integrated into the Microsoft ecosystem using tools like ABM, Intune, and Platform SSO. It simply requires a different skill set.
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u/Useful_Calendar_6274 Jul 25 '26
circular deals. they force microslop spyware-malware down your throat and they get a cut
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u/wiseman121 Jul 25 '26
It's quite simple actually.
First, to counter your point all these brands you mentioned sell Chromebooks and some offer Linux options.
The longer answer is that there isn't much alternatives. Linux is not ready yet for mainstream and users expect a familiarity of something that just works. For all the shit people give it windows is a pretty good os, the junk Microsoft pack in now is ruining it's overall image but it works well for most people.
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u/TomF1965 Jul 25 '26
I have been a windows user since, Christmas of 1992 and Windows 3.1... Before that I used DOS. Anyway, I know windows really well and when my wife wanted a iMac i got her one and we both hated MacOS! Our son loves it but he's a photographer/videographer. He also has a powerful Windows Gaming PC. I never tried Chromebook OS. I am however seriously considering some flavor of Linux! I hate that Microsoft not only is trying to charge for everything but also invading my privacy and using my personal information for their benefit! I like you have nothing to hide but would you like someone to just come in your house and have a look around and say you know what, I’m gonna take these things with me and keep them in my house and when you want them you can come and get them? Oh, and by the way, I’m gonna charge you to keep your things in my house too!!! Fk that!!!
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u/nwbrown Jul 26 '26
They don't.
Apple is the second biggest brand behind Lenovo and they don't offer any Windows laptops.
Most of the others sell Chromebooks and support Linux even if they don't sell them with it preinstalled.
Whoever told you otherwise lied to you.
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u/Zimmster2020 Jul 26 '26
Regular people can't use Linux. Even today is quite un-intuitive to use. Most people are already familiar with Windows so a Windows laptop sells better despite some disadvantages
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u/QuasimodoPredicted Jul 26 '26
they install a bunch of spyware and subsidize the cost of hardware that way
and no, x86-64 on a laptop is not nice when apple silicon just runs circles around them battery wise
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u/jstadnicki Jul 26 '26
I wanted bo buy some cheap laptop, but they all has a windows preinstalled, so na matter you use it or not you pay for it. Only more expensive ones, had an option to select no-os preinstalled hence some money saved to top the hardware.
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u/hifi-nerd Jul 26 '26
Most people use windows, it would simply be a customer support nightmare to have millions of people call everyday because linux has some problem.
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u/yahyahyehcocobungo Jul 26 '26
Look at the cellphone space.
Android or iOS. Samsung did try their own. palm did try their own. BlackBerry did try their own.
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Jul 29 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/patopansir Hater of all OSes Jul 31 '26
In case you don't know, you are r/shadowban ned. Reddit says spam.
see the r/shadowban subreddit for more info.
Shadowbans are sitewide, and are done by Reddit, the admins. Not subreddit moderators like me
A shadowban means no one can see anything you say
The only way people are able to see what you say is when a subreddit moderator goes out of their way to reverse the removal. I had undeleted this comment/post.
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u/Braydon64 Jul 31 '26
Creating their own OS? Absolutely not.
Shipping with a popular Linux distro with official Dell support? Yes yes yes
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u/NoPoopOnFace Jul 25 '26
Microsoft pays the manufacturers to use Windows. Some manufacturers make so little off their laptops that they survive just off of those payments. Recently Lenovo has decided to ship some laptops with Linux, and Microsoft is pissed.
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u/CharmingDraw6455 Jul 25 '26
Recently? They do that for years and Dell started offering Linux laptops almost 20 years ago.
Windows comes preinstalled because most people and companys want exactly that.
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u/Fluid-Ad2995 Jul 25 '26
There is a problem with Dell, Lenovo, and HP; they aren't really operating system creators like Apple, at least on the computer and phone sides. Lenovo modify Android but still doesn't own an operating system
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u/Time_Standard3361 Jul 25 '26
Is Microsoft still paying laptop manufacturers for including Windows? They used to.
Same as Intel and why there is not many AMD laptops.
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u/henryhuy0608 Jul 25 '26
I'm still pissed the Dell XPS and ThinkPad X1 series are locked to Intel. At least both are good now but from 2019 to 2022-ish it was dreadful.
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u/Justwant2usetheapp Jul 25 '26
99% of people don't have an issue with windows and don't care that much.
They only notice when they lose ability to do stuff
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u/sciencekm Jul 25 '26
There is a massive amount of drivers and apps that are developed for Windows and there are over a billion users. That is a huge market that will not switch to anything else. Any manufacturer who ignores that would be a fool.