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Italian Supreme Court Bans the 'Microsoft Tax'
An anonymous reader writes: In a post at the Free Software Foundation, lawyer Marco Ciurcina reports that the Italian Supreme Court has ruled the practice of forcing users to pay for a Windows license when they buy a new PC is illegal. Manufacturers in Italy are now legally obligated to refund that money if a buyer wants to put GNU/Linux or another free OS on the computer. Ciurcina says, "The focus of the Court's reasoning is that the sale of a PC with software preinstalled is not like the sale of a car with its components (the 4 wheels, the engine, etc.) that therefore are sold jointly. Buying a computer with preinstalled software, the user is required to conclude two different contracts: the first, when he buys the computer; the second, when he turns on the computer for the first time and he is required to accept or not the license terms of the preinstalled software. Therefore, if the user does not accept the software license, he has the right to keep the computer and install free software without having to pay the 'Microsoft tax.'"
The timing of this is terrible. In the mid-2000s, we had Ubuntu, Debian and even Mandriva providing useful Linux distros. But since then we've seen Ubuntu go out of its way to create the shittiest experience it can, and Debian is catching up as quickly as it can. Mandriva has become totally irrelevant. Linux Mint is maybe the only remotely viable choice, but it isn't comparable to even Windows 7 in terms of what's needed for corporate or organizational desktop users. This development is coming a decade too late to be useful!
In principle, maybe. But Apple gives away its software free. It's the hardware itself that's pricey.
Dell once explained why their Linux PCs weren't cheaper than similar Windows models. The average cost of a single customer service call to Dell was higher than their OEM Windows licence cost, and the Linux PCs had a significant higher number of customer service calls than the Windows-PCs.
Probably a big factor yes, maybe even bigger: The Windows pre-installs have software that vendors pay to have on there. Your Windows system is subsidized, the Linux system is not.
I'm all for free software, but this reasoning sounds insane. When people buy a PC, it says "comes with windows", you know what you're getting, and to require manufacturers to return half of it seems nuts. It's like ordering a cheeseburger, and then demanding a refund for the cheese. Why didn't you just order a hamburger?
Walk into a store and buy a fully assembled name brand (Dell, HP, etc) PC, complete with warranty and guarantees, without ANY software preinstalled. You can't. Your analogy fails.
20 years too late
How about no OS warranty then? No-OS pc = no OS warranty... Call up Dell and say your no-OS machine won't boot and they should tell you to reboot and hit f10 ... If ePSA passes, sorry, you need to fix it yourself or restore from backup or reimage...
Under Dutch law you are entitled a refund because you did not get to see the license before purchasing the computer but only after booting it for the fist time. Vendors have found all kinds of work-arounds. One of those work-arounds is that they add an administration-fee to your refund that is higher than the price of Windows. Another work-around is that they require the manufacture to verify that Windows has been entirely removed. Unfortunately they don't have a local office that can do that so you are supposed to ship your computer to Germany. They will check the computer, which takes a few weeks, and only then you get your refund, minus the international shipping and handling costs. Ofcourse they will not use the list-price for the refund but the volume-discount price that the big manufacturers get.
Only the most principled customers will jump through the hoops to get the refund.
Why should anyone be paying M$ so much as a thin dime let alone $10-$20 in royalties on each Android device sold?
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
The bare bones PC doesn't sell worth spit.
It is not and never has been and never will be a mass market consumer product.
The OEM system install was the key to making the PC a mass market product. It meant that you had a working --- tested --- configuration out of the box, appropriate for its price range and intended use.
In 2014 it is still possible for the geek to be tied up in knots by Linux audio.
Something that leaves the OSX and Windows user with his head shaking in disbelief.
Walmart --- with its enormous purchasing power --- spent about ten years trying to make the OEM Linux PC a viable alternative to Windows in the North American retail market.
The chain sold tons of crap-tastic hardware to the geek for maybe $25 less than a Windows PC with a far more muscular CPU, twice the RAM and hard disk storage. For its rural customers on dial-up, Wamart had a Linux PC without a working modem.
The point being, that by the time product reaches retail shelves, the price of the OEM system install is essentially irrelevant.
There is something distinctly fraudulent about buying a Windows PC and demanding a refund when you could have bought a Linux PC from the start.
Well, given that Apple doesn't charge for OS upgrades anymore, it can be argued that the cost of the OS is $0, when bundled with a Mac. You can get your refund, but I am not sure that $0 is worth the effort.
The real cost is having to buy a new Mac every few years because the latest upgrade was an upgrade too far. Well, at least it easier to roll back, compared to an iPhone.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
I agree in principle, though I think the actual per-unit price paid by the manufacturer is a more reasonable refund than the open market OEM price. Otherwise if I've managed to negotiate a better deal with MS then the excess of a full oem-price refund may well exceed my profit margins. Whether MS should be allowed to negotiate such deals is a separate issue.
The price situation is also complicated by crapware subsidies - if you remove Windows then presumably you also remove all the crapware installed on it. Now my feeling on preinstalled crapware is that they pays their money and they takes their chances, after all most halfway competent users will remove it immediately anyway. But that subsidy may well exceed the low negotiated price of Windows, in which case an OS-less machine will legitimately be more expensive.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Imagine we lived in a world without hamburgers, only cheeseburgers. The solution would be to encourage people to open up hamburger shops, not to demand that cheesburger shops refund the cheese.
Fast Federal Court and I.T.C. updates