Operating system disks from PC manufacturers?

[Chuck]

Say I bought a new Dell Ivy Bridge laptop next month and don't get the "upgrade your OS for free" option for Windows 8. Can I purchase an upgrade disk from Dell considering there aren't any major hardware changes this fall? Any chance I can legally download all the software (Dell theme included) that would come with the system pre-installed after the Win 8 release?

[Sazar]

Say I bought a new Dell Ivy Bridge laptop next month and don't get the "upgrade your OS for free" option for Windows 8. Can I purchase an upgrade disk from Dell considering there aren't any major hardware changes this fall? Any chance I can legally download all the software (Dell theme included) that would come with the system pre-installed after the Win 8 release?

I would probably call their support and find out.

The disc/download isn't an issue per-se since you technically have the appropriate license provided to you from Microsoft. My guess would be yes, you can get the stuff legally but like I said, just check with their support (you can do an online chat perhaps using the service tag from the system you are going to get).