Trying to buy a PC without Windows part 3 – PC World

This is the third article in a new series of case studies illustrating the difficulty one has purchasing a PC in the UK without being forced to pay a “Microsoft Tax”. We use Linux on all our PC’s and have done so for several years. Therefore we do not need, nor should we be forced to pay for any Microsoft software licenses. This week we report on a visit to our local PC World.

PC World’s Penguin rating

Marks out of five for PC World’s customer care. (This is probably higher than it deserves. However all the staff we spoke to were friendly and helpful, even if they were completely ineffective and devoid of in-depth technical knowledge.)
Overall rating	3/10 = better than some suppliers but still pretty hopeless!

Events

TBH I don’t know whey I even bothered. UK supplier PC World has a reputation for paying its staff peanuts and hiring moderately amiable monkeys. Which is exactly what I found. Most did not know what Linux is. The few that had heard of it, just muttered something about PC World did not supporting it, and their computers probably would not run it.

Well, that was that!