2026-08-10T22:33:48.412547Z

Amid RAM price hikes, Microsoft reportedly raises Windows license cost, forcing OEMs to hike prices even further on hardware

www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/amid-ram-price-hikes-microsoft-reportedly-raises-windows-license-cost-forcing-oems-to-hike-prices-even-further-on-hardware

Windows 11 Hero Surfaces on a white table

Windows CentralWindows 11 license fee hikes contributing to higher laptop prices, says reportA new report claims Microsoft has raised the cost of the Windows license by up to 10% for certain OEMs, which is much higher than usual.

2026-08-10T22:47:45.617115Z

Zedstrian@Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz

edited⁨4⁩d

Replying to @⁨mereo@piefed.ca⁩

More OEMs should ship devices with Linux as an option, discounted by the Windows license cost.

2026-08-11T02:21:38.010486Z

adarza@adarza@lemmy.ca

⁨4⁩d

Replying to @⁨Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz⁩

they actually make money on many of those windows preinstalls due to all the bullshit they get paid to put on.

2026-08-11T13:22:51Z

imecth@imecth@fedia.io

edited⁨4⁩d

Replying to @⁨adarza@lemmy.ca⁩

The fun part is that they can bundle an equal amount of bloatware on linux for even more revenue.

2026-08-11T17:30:00.252034Z

Aeder@Aeder@lemmy.world

⁨4⁩d

Replying to @⁨imecth@fedia.io⁩

The actually funny part is that they can’t. Most of the bloatware is not available on Linux because it doesn’t support it.

⁨Aug⁩ ⁨11⁩, ⁨2026⁩, ⁨17:30⁩en

2026-08-11T17:47:12Z

imecth@imecth@fedia.io

⁨4⁩d

Replying to @⁨Aeder@lemmy.world⁩

I'm not sure what you mean... linux "supports" bloatware just fine, it's just that we don't have much of that kind of software (yet), and i'm sure they could get it all to run through winboat or somesuch if they really wanted to.