So why did HP do this? Their customers, which are mostly big companies, don't like it. Were they pressured to do so by a government agency? Did their in-house "analytics" people get out of control? Why won't HP say anything?
HP Enterprise is a different thing. Those big companies are customers HP actually cares about and they don't push things like this on them. They also honor warranties for them and respond to support calls.
The HP that sells laptops in department stores is consumer-hostile and sees the purchasers of their computers as cash cows to be farmed out to third parties and upsold remote support plans when the computer has a problem. And problems will inevitably occur since the machines are built with such poor quality control.
It's sad to see a brand new computer be slower than one that is 10 years old but can't be used because it has the wrong operating system.
