There was a time that number lock was enabled by default (at least in a Windows environment). Then, after an update one day, all the sudden the Number Lock is disabled. Why the change? What is it about disabling number lock that would be considered a better user experience?
Some laptops don't have a dedicated numeric keypad. Some of these laptops activate the function-key numbers when num-lock is activated. And thus lots of users writes "He336 W6r3d" instead of "Hello world" And if this is entered during logon, they only see "*****" ;-)