I can tell you that for us as a company, it’s usually cheaper to sell a laptop with Windows than to use the build to order process to build one without.

We have to refer our customers to our own competition if they really want a laptop with up-to-date (and very heavy!) hardware that doesn’t include Windows: http://www.malibal.com/

After over ten years of fighting, the manufacturers still use the same excuses, they still blame it on the resellers, and the resellers still can’t do anything against it.