Italian Consumer Watchdog Sues Microsoft Over 'Windows Tax'

An anonymous reader writes with this quote from El Reg: "[An] Italian consumer watchdog is suing Microsoft over the 'Windows Tax' – the near impossibility of an ordinary user getting a refund if they decide to delete Microsoft's software from a new computer or laptop. The class action case says Microsoft makes it too difficult for people who buy a computer with Microsoft software on it to remove that software and get their money back. Most users do not realise that starting the software means you have accepted the end user licence."

Comments

don't blame Microsoft

[ILuvRamen]

You can really blame China for this, not Microsoft. If you sell no-OS computers in China, they're getting an illegal copy of Windows put on them 100% guaranteed. If you sell them preloaded, you force pre-assembled computer purchases in China to have legit copies.
Furthermore, how can someone prove they removed Windows 7 from a computer they bought? I don't think Microsoft quite has a remote killswitch or re-check of the license daily on the internet or something. They can't remote disable the copy of Windows that your computer came with if you claim you removed windows and put on Linux but you're lying and it's still running windows. I'm not sure if there's a license re-check for every windows update so they might be able to remotely kill that but other than that, they can't trust random customers who claim they removed it.

Re:Updated TOS

[pieterh]

You're making a false equivalence. Microsoft make their money from Windows and the products that run on it, leveraging a monopoly in ways that have been ruled illegal over and over. Apple make their money from the hardware, and use the OS as added bait. They do not have a monopoly and do not make deals with other manufacturers to get OS/X included on all boxes under the threat of punitive sanctions (which are also illegal).

Much of Europe has specific laws against 'bundling', in which two products are sold together in ways that make it hard for the consumer to exercise fair choice. E.g. GSM handsets + contracts.

This case is not about a general issue of being able to buy hardware without software. It is specifically about being able to escape the Windows tarpit without being penalized (as a consumer) for the cost of the OS if you don't want it. The term "Windows tax" really is accurate: when you buy a notebook (except an Apple) you pay for Windows whether you want it or not. When you buy an Apple computer you are explicitly choosing OS/X as part of the package and you do have an easy alternative.

When notebooks come with a real choice of OSes, as netbooks did in the first years, a sizeable % of buyers choose Linux, because it saves them money and works as well as Windows for most applications. (I know because I've given Linux netbooks to my wife and kids and they have never, once, had trouble using them.)

Of course it's easy to get desktops without an OS, if you're a geek and you use custom builds. And yes, you can find specialist stores who will sell you Linux laptops. But the mass of people buy their computers in supermarkets, and that's where the problem lies.