Unfortunately, none of the websites says why suppliers X, Y and Z, who used to sell them laptops without Windows, will no longer supply them with laptops withou

Unfortunately, none of the websites says why suppliers X, Y and Z, who used to sell them laptops without Windows, will no longer supply them with laptops without Windows, if that is the case. (There's no evidence that it is.) Also, none of the websites says why they can't just buy their laptops directly from Chinese white box PC suppliers. Am I supposed to believe it's cheaper to buy them via another European company that actually buys them from a Chinese white box supplier? Really? Microsoft's record of trying to influence the market dates from around 1992-95, and it spent the 2000's under close judicial control, so your fact-free monopoly assertion doesn't carry a lot of weight now. Either way, Apple has conclusively demonstrated that the market certainly will support a viable alternative -- and one that commands huge profit margins. This doesn't mean suppliers of crappy low-spec/high-priced Linux laptops are entitled top a free lunch, or that politicians should interfere with the market to prop up their failing businesses.