In article 1111287896.570291@news, says...
I don't see this as a big problem, as long as it helps keep the price of the
system down. With blank CD's costing pennies a peice, it is a negligible
cost to the buyer to burn the copies themselves. I think that when the
customer gets the system and FIRST turns it on, it should give them the
option to burn backup copies then, or place a shortcut on the desktop.

It does. When you turn the system on for the first time, even BEFORE
you fill in your info the system asks you to burn a set of re-install
CDs. You can do it at any time later if you say no and skip it.