Slashdot Mirror
Amazon UK Refunds Windows License Fee, With Little Hassle
christian.einfeldt writes "Alan Lord, a FOSS computer consultant based in the UK, has announced that Amazon UK honored his request for a refund of the Microsoft license fee portion of the cost of a new Asus netbook PC that came with Microsoft Windows XP. Lord details the steps that he took to obtain a refund of 40.00 GBP for the cost of the EULA, complete with links to click to request a refund. Lord's refund comes 10 years after the initial flurry of activity surrounding EULA discounts, started by a blog post by Australian computer consultant Geoffrey Bennett which appeared on Slashdot on 18 January 1999. That Slashdot story led to mainstream press coverage, such as stories in CNN, the New York Times Online, and the San Francisco Chronicle, to name just a few. The issue quieted down for a few years, but has started to gain some momentum again in recent years, with judges in France, Italy, and Israel awarding refunds. But if Lord's experience is any indication, getting a refund through Amazon might be as easy as filling out a few forms, at least in the UK, without any need to go to court."
Now where do you get that from? There are vendors that sell boxed and/or subscription based Linux distributions (most known are Red Hat and Novel (SuSE), but there are others too).
And there is a lot more money in support, money that actually is helpful for the local economy.
Also there are other commercial operating systems that are sold (e.g. QNX).
They just don't have the power and ruthlessness of OEM bribery and monopoly like Microsoft, but they are there.
From what I've read, the range of refunds given has been variable if not arbitrary. This thread on the ubuntu forums is an interesting place to start reading about some differenct experiences people have had.
I was also interested to learn recently that it is possible to buy machines with no OS from some vendors. The college I work for has this ability through our Dell rep. This post in the above-mentioned thread is particularly interesting, as it claims that anybody can request and receive a new computer without an OS from several vendors.
I am literally 3000 tokens away from the chaotic crossbow --Stephen
The problem is, historically at least, Microsoft strong-arms the OEMs into ONLY supplying machines with Windows - if they refuse, MS refuse to provide them with a license. Yes, anticompetitive and probably illegal, but that's the way it was for a long time.
OEMs won't upset 95% of their business to appease the other 5%, and most of the people who want Windows want it preinstalled, so the OEM needs the license to do so. OEMs who offer non-Windows installs are much the minority right now, but at least it's a foot in the door.
> If you want to play any media on it that isn't opensource, it's not as simple as just trying to play the video and automatically finding the codec.
This is simpler under Linux than it is Windows, and far simpler than MacOS.
Ubuntu has staked the heart of this particular bit of FUD.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.