I'm planning on buying a laptop. Unfortunately, no one sells a ubuntu version or some free OS version in HK as I am basically forced to buy windows vista basic or forced to pay 700 extra for a windows vista premium/windows xp license.

I heard of a few cases from the internet and a slash dot article that people had to call Dell or whatever vendor and speak to upper management for a successful refund. I'm not sure if this works in HK and most sales staff just tell me to pay for the license and avoid the hassle. Have not checked in detail with local Sales of Goods and Ordinance laws or consumer laws but the small claims court fee for cases below 5000 is around $20.

I should try to negotiate with the vendor or distributor before buying a purchase but if I fail should I just buy the laptop and sue or threaten to sue? One thing nice about HK is that it is a relatively pragmatic city so I hope things smooth out in the end...

Desktops we can choose the OS to install but netbooks, laptops we are out of luck.

I guess you didn't do your homework. Dell is selling a new laptop (model: Precision M4400) with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 64-bit preinstalled. I read an article that HP is coming out with a modified Ubuntu OS laptop soon.

It is not worthwhile to sue a laptop manufacturer in Hong Kong for not offering you an OS option.

Various Linux distro have come a long way. They're getting more and more user friendly. However, Linux is still relatively difficult, geeky and therefore, not as poplular as Windows. Most of the laptop manufacturers think that the Linux market is insignificant to warrant a major effort to produce more Linux based laptops. You have no idea which Linux distro would work 100% with any particular brand or model laptops.

Just take a look at the Ubuntu forum and you will realize that a lot of people had problems after installing Ubuntu and found that the Wireless cards, video cards or the touchpad didn't work. I was lucky that Ubuntu v8.10 (installed on a USB flash drive) works 100% with my old IBM T-40 and Lenovo X60 and 61s. However, I did find a few obvious bugs.

No doubt that Linux will become more and more popular in the near future. The reasons being that 1) the Gnome, KDE graphical interfaces are becoming more user friendly. 2) It is license free. Just take a look at Splashtop, HyperSpace, Ubuntu v8.10 and gOS, people will agree that Microsoft's days are numbered.

I think that Ubuntu or the like of it will appeal to SME in Hong Kong simply because it is free. It is becoming even more attractive especially after the evolving financial crisis. If the SME owners want to come out of their closets by switching from pirated OS back to a licensed product without spending money, Ubuntu would be a good solution.  

For those SME which rely on Windows based software, they could simply minimize the number of Windows based PC in their organization.