I purchased the computer as my first computer to do work on for my startup.
Item number 1 is not going to be: reformat the computer, risking the warranty, reinstalling the OS, removing the professional support that I have wanted my whole life but never received, and spend weekends getting WiFi to work with an external card since there's no way the WiFi would work on the Ubuntu install on the Windows machine, I was told. I called their support and they clarified for me that I would not be able to get WiFi or their professional support once I changed the OS. I got 10 minutes of use out of the first paid professional support I ever got in my life, and they told me that there was no solution to my problem and that I would not be allowed to call them again if I proceeded.
It's insane that I'm expected to do all of that to a machine that should have been productive for me on day 1. It would have been weeks of work to get ready to work. Not the plan.
I bought a machine to use professionally for work and Dell screwed me by giving me the wrong product, taking my money, and refusing to return it for about two weeks.
The whole thing was an absolute disaster and I will never buy a Dell again.
I understand the frustration but it seemed like you're overreacting: it's not hard to install Ubuntu, in fact it's preferable (if you ask me) so you can choose packages.
I also don't think it would void support - then no one could re-install. And how would they know you re-installed anyway?
Honestly Linux might be a pain for you to use day-to-day if installing from scratch seems like a big chore; either that OR you're misreading how Dell support would react. The third possibility is that Dell support is disastrously bad, and fragile, and no one should buy Dells. I'm slightly skeptical of option 3.
That shouldn't be the case: http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/os-applications/f/44...
> You also do not get their professional support this way
Why not? How do they know you got one with Windows if your invoice says Linux?