Windows Tax Shot Down In Italy

An anonymous reader writes Italy's High Court has struck a blow to the practice of forcing non-free software on buyers of PCs and laptops. According to La Repubblica, the court ruled on Thursday that a laptop buyer was entitled to receive a refund for the price of the Microsoft Windows license on his computer. The judges sharply criticised the practice of selling PCs only together with a non-free operating system as "a commercial policy of forced distribution". The court slammed this practice as "monopolistic in tendency." It also highlighted that the practice of bundling means that end users are forced into using additional non-free applications due to compatibility and interoperability issues, whether they wanted these programs or not. "This decision is both welcome and long overdue", said Karsten Gerloff, President of the Free Software Foundation Europe. "No vendor should be allowed to cram non-free software down the throats of users."

Comments

What about other devices?

[recoiledsnake]

Since computing is moving to tablets and phones, can we get OS refunds for iDevices and Android tablets and phones also ?

Also, is this applicable to Macs?

Separate hardware from software

[oever]

A law that forbids selling hardware and software together would increase innovation. Consumers would only be able to buy hardware and software separately. That way, hardware vendors are encouraged to document the hardware and software vendors will compete on quality. Installation procedures would become very easy very quickly due to market pressure.

Need more than a legal precedent

[EmperorOfCanada]

More than a legal precedent this needs solid regulations with teeth. I suspect that if you walk into whatever the Italian equivalent of Best Buy waving this judgement around and demanding a refund that they will just have security escort you out. But if refusal to even offer a Windows free machine was worthy of a fine, let alone not removing it, then windows free machines would be widely available.

Also the removal of Windows should have to be free and done in a timely manner (under an hour).

Re:Need more than a legal precedent

[pr0fessor]

Here is thing when you walk into best buy or what ever they have limited shelf space they are only going to stock what they can sell... Which just happens to be windows based or a Mac. {they will also have some chromebooks and android tablets}

Now they don't want to stock a bunch of no os desktops because people {the majority of people} just want their stuff to work right out of the box. They can't afford to use that space when they could fill it with another item that will sell better.

As for anyone else you can go online and order a computer with linux or no os from multiple vendors... I may not be able to go pick up a linux laptop from the local store but I can order one on the dell website.

I can go to the local store and buy levi's jeans but not every fit and color levi's I have to order some of those online too.

How much would the rebate be?

[wisnoskij]

What does MS sell their OEM OS for anyway? Probably not that much. No one will likely bother.

Re:Apple?

[CastrTroy]

MS has done nothing to prevent a PC from being sold without an OS. You can buy plenty of computers without an OS. The reason you don't see more available from the likes of HP, Dell, Acer, and others is because it creates a support nightmare. 99% of the population would have no idea what to do with a computer if you shipped them a computer without an operating system on it. Also, not shipping an OS means they can't ship third-party nagware (Antivirus, PowerDVD, etc) on the computer that they get paid to put on there because a certain percentage of people will buy the premium versions.

What Microsoft has done is made it quite cheap to sell computers with Windows pre-installed. They certainly make it cheaper for Dell to pre-install Windows on a machine than for the end user to buy their own copy. They may have even said that they will raise the price if they don't make all their machines come with Windows. But manufacturers do that kind of stuff all the time in other areas. It costs almost as much for a whole new bike for the price you'd pay just for the drive train on a bicycle if you were to buy it apart from the bike. Companies pay big money to get exclusive rights to products (think games and products that are only sold in specific stores) because they know they'll make make money off the customer in the end.