[nylug-talk] How to get a Windows tax refund

[Gregg Levine]

On 1/6/07, Jay Sulzberger <jays at panix.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Sat, 6 Jan 2007, alex at pilosoft.com wrote:
>
> > On Sat, 6 Jan 2007, Jay Sulzberger wrote:
> >
> >> I do not know whether Dell sells any home computer without a Microsoft
> >> OS.  Certainly they do not sell one at a lower price than the same
> >> computer with a Microsoft OS already installed.  On the Dell website,
> >> only Microsoft OSes are advertised.
> > False.
>
> You may go to
>
> http://www.dell.com
>
> and see that Dell offers to buyers of home machines no choice of
> OS: it is Microsoft only.
>
> >
> > If you want to rail against windows tax, rail against someone other than
> > Dell. Dell very much sells OS-less desktops (under "small business"). In
> > fact, its right on the website:
> >
> > http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/desktops?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd
> >
> > "Open source desktops"
> >
> > As far as price - it varies. Often enough, the promotions that are applied
> > to windows servers are not applied to os-less servers on website.
> > Occasionally, you can call your phone sales rep and they might budge,
> > particularly for a large order (say, 50 machines). Currently, os-less
> > desktops are 30$ cheaper than corresponding windows machine. Compare:
> > http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/optix_n?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~ck=anavml
> > http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/optix?~ck=anav
> >
> > Not every desktop is available OS-less, currently, only OptiPlex are
> > (although, they did have dimension os-less at one point).
> >
> > I know, we own a large number of Optiplex boxes that are OS-less.
>
> Not to give refunds is a gross violation of the decision of the
> court in the large antitrust suit.  Serge got a refund, but most
> folks who try do not.  It is a further violation of the court
> order to give the impression that only Microsoft OSes run on Dell
> home machines.  Dell and Microsoft are engaged in a combination
> in restraint of trade.  The issue has been abjudicated.  Dell and
> Microsoft lost.  But because we who run free OSes do not go to
> the court, Microsoft and Dell continue their gross attacks on us,
> and on every buyer of a home machine.
>
> Dell and Microsoft wish to end even the bare possibility of
> running a free OS.  To repeat: Dell does not offer for sale any
> home computer without a Microsoft OS already installed, and Dell
> and Microsoft ignore the plain and simple terms of the Refund
> Clause of the Microsoft EULA.  Note that Microsoft wrote the
> EULA.
>
> http://www.windowsrefund.info
> http://www.thetc.org
>
> oo--JS.
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Hello!
Excuse me? Your not getting it, are you? There was indeed an blurb in
the new products section of an issue of Linux Journal last month that
describes a Dell machine that was built especially for Linux (and
probably the BSD crowd as well!).

Don't go basing it on that poorly designed website of theirs that's
only useful to someone who's a complete naif about hardware. (I should
know I went through that hassle for a Dell Dimension who's from the
generation before this one.)

It also happens that those gonophs in Redmond do honor the terms
behind the refund, and it was discussed to its probable demise about
eight years ago at an OEM meeting I attended.


Now if you want me to prove it, please contact me off list the Monday
of the first meeting for this year, and I'll bring in the issue.
Ordering it of course is the other problem..... But that's for another
one of these.

And other then that off list one, please let's drop the subject.
-- 
Gregg C Levine gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com
"This signature was once found posting rude
 messages in English in the Moscow subway."