[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, Gregg Levine wrote:
>
> > 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!).
>
> Please go to
>
> http://www.dell.com
>
> and look for a home machine with a free OS installed.
>
> There are none.
>
> >
> > 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.)
>
> Poor website design is not the issue.  Dell and Microsoft have
> agreed to refuse to sell any home computer that does not have a
> Microsoft OS installed.
>
> >
> > 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.
>
> No, Microsoft and Dell do not honor the plain and simple terms of
> the Refund Clause of the Microsoft EULA.
>
> >
> >
> > 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.
>
> No.  I will pay you full price for a Dell laptop that you buy and
> deliver to me with no Microsoft OS on it, and for which you have
> gotten a refund.
>
> >
> > And other then that off list one, please let's drop the subject.
> > --
> > Gregg C Levine gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com
>
> No.  If we do not get the Refund Clause of the Microsoft EULA
> enforced, then shortly no Dell computer will boot any free OS.
>
> oo--JS.
>
>
> > "This signature was once found posting rude
> > messages in English in the Moscow subway."
> > _____________________________________________________________________________
> > Hire expert Linux talent by posting jobs here :: http://jobs.nylug.org
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> >
> >
> _____________________________________________________________________________
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>
Hello!
Pardon me? I didn't say it came with a free OS installed. This machine
gets specially ordered, empty. And according to the blurb, which
probably isn't in the one for December, but it did come up during the
second half of last year. I will bring it, it contains a special link
in the blurb.

I thought I made it clear, that its not listed on the site directly,
Which is why I insisted that the website is at fault.

Now please let's drop the issue, and move on to something else before
we start exchanging unfriendly insults, and one of the Owners steps in
to end it.
-- 
Gregg C Levine gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com
"This signature was once found posting rude
 messages in English in the Moscow subway."