They do, but the OEM rates are significantly lower than what you or I would pay, and they get cheaper by volume so the big OEMs are paying very, very little per unit.
Unless things have changed, that was true even if you buy one of their official Linux or No OS/Other OS laptops based on the price. You probably have to go with a smaller company like System76 or Framework that explicitly offers Linux as a first class option and isn’t big enough to get roped into some extremely lucrative evil contract.
Is this new?
I thought OEMs paid the license fee per unit
They do, but the OEM rates are significantly lower than what you or I would pay, and they get cheaper by volume so the big OEMs are paying very, very little per unit.
So the parasite still getting paid off our purchases then.
Disgusting
Unless things have changed, that was true even if you buy one of their official Linux or No OS/Other OS laptops based on the price. You probably have to go with a smaller company like System76 or Framework that explicitly offers Linux as a first class option and isn’t big enough to get roped into some extremely lucrative evil contract.