The new Dell laptop just arrived by Purolator. I've got the Debian install CD at the ready, but before I do anything, does anyone have (local, or at least Canadian) experience with trying to get a Windows refund from a manufacturer?

Yeah, you contact M$ Canada and they tell you to contact the OEM. Contact the OEM and they tell you to contact M$ Canada. Tell them to stick it. the OEM is responsible, and M$ makes this crystal clear. Now you have a reason to build rather than buy off the shelf :)

I notice I can't even see the EULA anywhere in the box; I suspect it's likely to be in the shrinkwrapped Windows XP Home pamphlet. [Though there's no notice (at least on the outside) of the form "removing shrinkwrap implies agreement".]

I certainly don't intend to turn the machine on without it booting straight into Linux. Any other hints?

The boot loader can take care of this. You can get away without allowing M$ onto the botloader config so it doesn't show at all. -- Keith Mastin BeechTree Information Technology Services Inc. Toronto, Canada (416)696 6070 -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml