Windows Refund Day #2

Sircus writes "The BBC have now joined USA Today in having a story on Winbloze refund day. Best quote - 'Linux users are mostly anti-Windows'. Mostly? Find more at this page "

Today

[Mike Hicks]

Heh.. On one hand, it's good that today is President's Day.. Try to get a few Presidents in your pocket (a.k.a. Dollars, if you're confused)

Unfortunately, many news organizations are in hibernation mode today. It's supposed to be a holiday (although I have school, pleh..), so we won't see much coverage until tomorrow.. Oh well.

It makes me irate that Microsoft has said that they would not help people get their money back. I'm pretty glad that I'm not going to one of their offices to try and get money back (heh.. I don't qualify -- always built my own systems..) I'd probably get really @#$%ing angry and start yelling and screaming or something.

Anyway, I guess I'll just have to keep my eyes open for a stray news report here or there..

Today is the perfect day to do this!!!

[Mike Hicks]

Heh.. I hope you're right!

EULA clearly says it's the OEM's responsibility

[Mike Hicks]

Yes, that's true. However, I believe that the people that are going to MS for refunds are doing so because they can't get anywhere with the OEMs..

Maybe, just maybe, MS will listen to these people, take their names and the vendors that sold the computers, then communicate with the vendors about refunding them, who will in turn refund the consumers. It's unlikely, but that's probably the only way that people will get their money back..

I certainly hope that MS will help organize a way for consumers to return Windows and get a refund (e.g. set up a channel for MS to communicate with OEMs to handle this), but I definitely have doubts.

Anyway.. We'll see what happens.

LOL

[Mike Hicks]

Ha! I just had to say I thought that was funny.. dunno why, but I did.. ;-)

Report from Foster City

[caferace]

I just got back from the Foster City, Calif. site. I'd guess there we're about 100 people all told.

By the time I arrived, the press conference on the 4th floor of the attached parking structure was breaking up. Folks were being herded down to the front entrance, where we gathered across the street. It seemed like there was a fair amount of press. I saw local CBS and ABC affiliates, and many, many more folks taking pictures. There was one police car parked outside the building entrance, and another skulking up in the parking structure, with lots of building security milling about.

Most folks were wearing VAResearch t-shirts, with some Free-BSD, MKLinux and me in my BeOS shirt (which drew some mild jeers ;). Lots of protest signs, and both plastic and stuffed Tuxs' were in prominent display.

Bottom line? No one appeared to be walking out with a refund check. Imagine that. A Microsoft "official" referred potential refundees to hie thee back to the OEM to honor the EULA.

Back to square one? Who knows...

I want to die peacefully in my sleep as my grandfather did...

Yes, _mostly_

[John Campbell]

Yeah, but no one on Slashdot actually listens to Katz's drivel. Given the reaction every time he posts something, I'm not sure why Rob keeps him around...

WINE is not for 3D games

[Trepidity]

Umm, no it doesn't. Half-life looks like crap (if you can even get it to run at all) without hardware 3D acceleration. Until WINE can support some hardware acceleration in the games it's running, it won't be able to run 3D games playably.

Yes, _mostly_

[pingouin]

...but these message boards are too stuffed with bloated jerks.

I'm a jerk, yes, but I'm usually described as "wiry" :)

As far as OSes, Linux is my primary OS as well, but there's tons of good ones. All I ask for is a more level playing field out there, fair play and more adherence to open standards; I want to see the curbing of the excesses of one particular OS vendor (I'll give ya 98 guesses, or even 5.0^H^H^H2000, if ya want). If this makes me a "Linux Nazi" (ooh, yer a millimeter away from playin' the H Card, ain't ya?), so be it. The "M$ SUX" people may be the loudest on /., but they're probably a very small 3L337 minority.

--

EULA clearly says it's the OEM's responsibility

[timur]

Unless you purchased a shrink-wrapped copy of Windows from a reseller like CompUSA (i.e. a copy WITHOUT a computer), MS has no involvement in the refund. The EULA clearly says to contact the OEM for a refund. Once you get a refund from the OEM, what goes one between that OEM and MS is anyone's guess. Based on the reluctance of OEM's to provide refunds, my guess is that the OEM's won't be able to get a refund from MS. In other words, the OEM is eating the cost.


--
Timur "too sexy for my code" Tabi, [e-mail], http://www.tabi.org

antiMS?

[hany]

I'm not antiMS. I'm antiSTUPID.

Read that as you wish :)

the BBC

[morbid]

It's good to see that the BBC is not completely clueless and oblivious to everything's that's going on in the world, even if the have to steal other agencies' news.

Well, maybe one day I'll save up and buy an TV, and get a TV licence after all...

Yes, _mostly_

[mazeone]

That's one of the reaons why I like sites like this: they don't pontificate 24/7 erm, I read ars technica, and there is definitely as much pontification from them as anywhere else. Actually, maybe more because, as far as I can tell, they are taken in by "market speak" more often then the average /. article. They also are quite irrational about Macs.

hmm mostly Anti-Windows?

[rtfm]

Yeah until I can find some half-life binaries for Linux =^}

*sigh*...

[MAXOMENOS]

All I can say is, thank God more OEMs are giving us the option of using Linux instead, without the Microsoft Tax.

When are we get some updates?

[daviddennis]

I'm about to leave for Irvine with my MiniDV camcorder - I'll have some pictures up when the event's over and I've had a bite to eat down there, probably around 4-5 PST.

Note that most of the action is on the West Coast - it's only 10:41 here, and the Irvine event is for noon.

D

When are we get some updates?

[smallworld1]

It's almost 1:30 or 10:30 pst. When are we going to get some updates about how the refund demonstration has gone. I'm in Michigan so I'm not anywhere near a protest site.