2016-01-26 19:46 GMT+01:00, Edward Bartolo <edbarx@???>:
> Hi All,
>
> Call me paranoid but I am noticing big companies like Microsoft making
> it very difficult to buy a computer or laptop without Windows
> installed.
>
> Are you experiencing the same difficulty and what do you do when you
> need to buy a new machine?

I see corporate pressure mostly on big retail deals,
e.g. the pc you buy at the supermarket. A pc which
is probably going to break in hilarious and mysterious ways in a year.
The big players in selling pcs for the workplace don't care really that
much into coercing you to install Win, as long as you install an equally
spyware-compatible OS like Ubuntu or Fedora.
Some open source education and a lot of smugglers, cheaters and good people
like that in the management group make it easy
for little retailers in Italy to thrive and sell good pcs without any
OS preinstalled.
For personal use I hadn't bought a pc in 8 years IIRC, but a week ago
I had to for work purposes.
For laptops there is some choice even at an affordable price on the net,
without any OS. Check Amazon. If I were you I won't trust so much
known sellers for foss laptops like System76 or Librem, just because
they sell overpriced HW :)