> If the laptop is truly defective, and you can't install the original operating system as a consequence, NewEgg has no quick means of determining what you did

> If the laptop is truly defective, and you can't install the original operating system as a consequence, NewEgg has no quick means of determining what you did with the system ... and the manufacturer won't care either. Or they could do what the user did and boot to Windows via USB/Disk, which (correct me if I'm wrong) shouldn't take much more time than booting to HDD. They are a huge online electronics retailer; is it really too much to ask that they have basic debugging/testing tools on hand? If the retailer sold a defective product, the burden is on the retailer to test & fix the issue. Unless newegg has no way to reasonably test the system (claiming this would be absurd IMO), it is their responsibility to test it and see that it works. If you ship a broken product then refuse to fix it and wag your finger at the user for using it, that is bad business and it's rude. My question: Does installing Linux really make it impossible to test the hardware without it costing "more than the laptop is worth"? Is it not possible to boot to disk or USB and run some hardware tests? Newegg's stance could be reasonable if they disclosed it sensibly: "At Newegg you get the best prices for hardware and 'no-frills' service. We get you these low prices by streamlining our business processes ... including testing of returns. If you wish to take advantage of our 'no-frills' service, please leave the OEM OS on your laptop: supporting user installed OS costs more so if you install your own OS, be prepared to support the hardware yourself." Or something like that. A case could be made that servicing the 80% could result in a desirable reduction in retail prices that is good for the consumer. But then I wonder what the 80% on Newegg really looks like- what portion of their users is really keeping Windows on their boxes?