Why you should not pay for extended warranty if you use Linux

I was a technician at Futureshop before (now owned by Best Buy).

Software isn't covered by the extended warranty at both places so that means regardless if you have Windows or Linux issues the tech's will not fix it under the extended warranty.

The warranty only covers hardware issues not caused by the user (i.e. spills or drops).

I've had linux laptops come in and we usually didn't bat an eye (the average tech seems to know of it and the occasional one actually uses it). We generally don't care because we run software off of a bootable disc to do diagnostics assuming the issue is a hardware one and not software.

I think one plausible reason that the netbook was rejected in this case is most netbooks do not have dvd drives and they may have had difficulty running the diagnostics.

Of course the source story paints a very hostile picture from one side. Without knowing the other side we can't know what the real issue was. It could have been that the technician legitimately believed software damaged the netbook. Or the customer could have been rude in which case the techs and manager became hostile. Who knows?

In either case he should either bring it to another store or send a letter/email to someone at head office who will almost always take care of the customer.

Of course the whole linux and damaging hardware issue is still open. I remember a while ago that there was a 'minor' bug in Ubuntu that caused the continuous strain to the hard drive that could theoretically cause damage.

The software industry moves fast and here it just looks like Best Buy havn't moved their business practices at a comparable rate - which is typical behavior for large companies.

In my opinion it's only worth taking out an extended warranty on computers if you're a non technical person and need that kind of support. In real terms computing is so cheap these days that such warranties are barely worth the expense.

So, in other words, even if you use Linux you would have to actually pay for Windows just in order to have the warranty (you have to have something to install to the computer when you take it for repairs).

Normally you can just reject the Windows license for which they have to reimburse actual money back to you.

Sounds like normal practice to me. It should be possible to reinstall Windows and then get the warranty. But how should they be able to support the Linux machine, if they are not trained for it?