Crazy to realize the long path we did, from being unable to buy any laptop at all without a Windows license to being able to buy computers directly shipped with

Crazy to realize the long path we did, from being unable to buy any laptop at all without a Windows license to being able to buy computers directly shipped with Linux, and even open hardware. I guess that for younger people, it might be hard to remember the "good old time" when we were fighting for reimbursement of the license. One time, I did the process to try to get reimbursed for one laptop in France. At that time, there was a lot of uncertainty and no clearly defined process, but it was clear that the French law was on our side. In the doubt, I did it all: registered letters to HP and to the retailer. I think that in theory it was supposed to be HP that should reimbursed me, but I think that they never replied to me. On the other side, I received a reimbursement from the retailer in a kind of "nice unofficial way": << We think that we are not responsible to do that, but here is a 100 francs reimbursement so that you will stop annoying us>> (So it was not really needed that I burned/shred my Windows license or anything else)