HP/Vista Horror Story

This is a true story that just happened this last week. This story is not for people with weak constitution.

The past few days have been a nightmare for me. I decided to help out a friend in buying a laptop. My friend came a few days ago asking me what type of laptop that he should buy. We talked for a while about different laptops and we mentioned to him not to buy from HP since they didn't offer XP or other operating systems on their laptops.

I mentioned to my friend that Vista was the new ME II (Mistake Edition II) and everybody I know hates it. At that point, my friend called up HP on the phone and asked the salesman from HP if he could install Windows XP on it. The salesman from HP told my friend that he could do that and that everything would be fine. My friend purchased the extended warranty.

After talking with the salesman, I told my friend to buy Dell instead and just get an operating system that you actually can use. My friend ignored me and ordered a brand new laptop with Vista on it.

The laptop came in two weeks with Vista installed. Naturally, my friend tried the OS out and hated it. I received a call from my friend because he could not install Windows XP on his new laptop. XP didn't recognize any of the drives in the system. He asked me to call HP for him to figure this out.

The first person from support was from India and was somewhat difficult to understand. I told him that I was installing XP on the system and that XP would not recognize the hard disks. The support guy promptly told me, "By installing XP I would be voiding my warranty".

So here we were, lied to, and forced to use an operating system we just didn't want. My friend called HP and he returned the product. After yelling at the India representative over the phone, they finally transferred my friend over to a Canadian rep and installed XP.

Why are we being put through this mess? First DRMs, now this! Businesses need to remember it's us who keep them alive. I don't have to use any Microsoft products and I certainly don't have to buy from HP. In todays age, alternatives exist. I should be able to put whatever I want on a laptop I buy. Maybe some day big companies will get their heads out of the sand and face some reality for a change.