Purchasing Lenovo hardware without Windows?

Has anyone here been able to purchase a Lenovo ThinkPad without Windows? (or gotten clear instructions on returning the copy of Windows that comes with the machines?)

I've spent a month trying, and gotten nowhere. As far as I can tell, Lenovo and Microsoft have some arrangement that keeps anyone at Lenovo from fulfilling such an order. Fine, most people want Windows, but it should be optional.

If anyone has any tips or tricks for ordering a machine without Windows, I'd love to hear them. Otherwise, I guess I'll have to look elsewhere for hardware.

 

I think best you can do is order Vista Basic and save $49 this way.

 

Your best bet is to get it with Vista Basic. Even if they did offer it without Windows, I doubt you'd save much money (if that's what you're looking to do).

 

I don't care much about the cost really. Sure, I wouldn't mind saving some money, but I'd rather just have a choice in software licensing when I buy hardware. Right now, you don't from Lenovo, all you can get is Microsoft.

I can either support software I actually use (buy from another vendor), or I can get excellent Lenovo hardware and continue to lock myself into Windows. This is a painful choice for me to make and so I would like to avoid making the choice at all.

 

This may be old news to many, so apologies in advance, but I know of at least one instance of Windows being refunded:

http://www.geek.com/dell-refunds-windows-cost-to-linux-user/

I assume that if you refuse the license agreement on your new notebook that you could do the same with Lenovo, although it would obviously be a rare request and require patience and some luck to go through.

Of course, some Dell notebook also come with the option of Linux instead of windows now too.

 

That's interesting and might be worth trying...

I ordered basic on my T61 so I wonder if they'll refund $50 back to me. I have no problem with using Linux since it isn't my gaming machine but I can probably get Vista at a reduced price at my school.

 

I spoke to Dell about this in the UK, due to the Open System not being available, and they refused to entertain any such request to deliver a machine without a O/S. I did put out that under EULA regulations I *should* be able to get my license money back. For the amount of time to sort out this sort of issue, it would cost me more in phone calls etc. So much for freedom of choice.

 

I tried to return my copy of windows when I got my notebook becuase it was in German (I bought it abroad), and not English.

I didn't get very far, they just kept bouncing me around. I got the excuse that I should have bought it without the OS, and that this was possible...they never explained how this should be done.


I think legally you are allowed to return it, but the companies just give you such a run around, that it is generally not worth the ca. 50 USD--that is the conclusion I came to.

 

I spoke to the corporate sales division once, after quoting parts of this article: http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2007/022807-dell-lenovo-linux.html

They told me they could configure machines without Windows, but I would have to order a large number of them (50 or so). Not really an option for most people.

So far, there's that and if you want a T60p this: http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/notebooks/thinkpad/t-series/workstation.html

But that doesn't really work for me. I'm rather interested in the X61 Tablet, not a T60p. Cheapest Windows OS you can get with the X61 Tablet is Vista Home Premium. Asking for no OS got me talking with a few people about ordering it with a copy of DOS instead of a Windows license, but the consumer and education sales representatives are unable to place that order. I suspect that corporate sales could, but would require me to buy machines in bulk as before.