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Get your Windows license refund

en.refund4freedom.org

181–190 of 354 posts

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#181

> Consumers should have the right to decline pre-installed software As a consumer I should also have the right to free ice cream and a pony ride. Many of us have tried to start or run businesses small or large. Does it make any sense for a government to start telling us what software the business should use or not use? Consumers already have the right to decline pre-installed software: don't buy the laptop. There, yo…

This is such a boomer coded 'deal with it' take. The manufacturer is going to charge you a premium for the software license. If you never intend to use that license, it's completely reasonable to think that we could live in a world where you could uncheck a box and avoid that altogether.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#182

> Consumers should have the right to decline pre-installed software As a consumer I should also have the right to free ice cream and a pony ride. Many of us have tried to start or run businesses small or large. Does it make any sense for a government to start telling us what software the business should use or not use? Consumers already have the right to decline pre-installed software: don't buy the laptop. There, yo…

If you don't like Cyclospora , don't buy lettuce infected with it. Similar regulatory problems, at least with the lettuce the diarrhea is temporary.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#183

> Consumers should have the right to decline pre-installed software As a consumer I should also have the right to free ice cream and a pony ride. Many of us have tried to start or run businesses small or large. Does it make any sense for a government to start telling us what software the business should use or not use? Consumers already have the right to decline pre-installed software: don't buy the laptop. There, yo…

It sounds reasonable to have the opportunity to buy hardware without software you do not intend to use. Though, I do assume that from the POV of the company selling the software, it would be ideal for the customer to not have a choice. I guess companies also want free ice creams and pony rides.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#185
I also raised an eyebrow at "the vast majority of laptops are only sold with a specific proprietary operating system: Microsoft Windows", but after looking at some estimates it seems legit. Probably only about 1 in 10 laptops is a Mac. Software developers really just live in a different world than normal people.

It got me thinking though: what is a laptop? People probably count Chromebooks, and that seems fair. Is a SteamDeck a laptop? Is an iPad with a keyboard case a laptop? Is a Microsoft Surface Pro a laptop when it has its keyboard attached?

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#186
post #182

> Consumers should have the right to decline pre-installed software As a consumer I should also have the right to free ice cream and a pony ride. Many of us have tried to start or run businesses small or large. Does it make any sense for a government to start telling us what software the business should use or not use? Consumers already have the right to decline pre-installed software: don't buy the laptop. There, yo…

If you don't like Cyclospora , don't buy lettuce infected with it. Similar regulatory problems, at least with the lettuce the diarrhea is temporary.

If Cyclospora is listed on the label then sure.

I don't use the builtin speaker on my laptop -- can I get refund on that too?

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#187

I switched two of my PCs over to Linux Mint last week. The automatic driver support is shockingly good compared to when I last installed Linux on a PC (almost 20 years ago). It even found a driver for the random no-name USB wireless receiver I bought on Amazon, whereas I had to install that driver manually on Windows. Part of my motivation was that one of the machines was still on Windows 7, but more than anything it…

Finding it's much easier to migrate to linux with an llm as a troubleshooting assistant. Even used it to make a task bar applet adjacent to Media Controls, where I can rate the current plexamp song without having to open plexamp. A big plus of linux is the easy ability to use workspaces and switch between them with a hover over the workspace taskbar applet and the mousewheel (and other options).

> Finding it's much easier to migrate to linux with an llm as a troubleshooting assistant.

Especially with NixOS. I would never allow an LLM to make core updates to my OS for fear of breaking it. Now LLMs manage all my packages and upgrades, and because it's all declarative, I can always revert anything that goes wrong.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#188
post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't like Cyclospora , don't buy lettuce infected with it. Similar regulatory problems, at least with the lettuce the diarrhea is temporary.

If Cyclospora is listed on the label then sure. I don't use the builtin speaker on my laptop -- can I get refund on that too?

You can't seriously think that's comparable to the OS.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#189
post #182

> Consumers should have the right to decline pre-installed software As a consumer I should also have the right to free ice cream and a pony ride. Many of us have tried to start or run businesses small or large. Does it make any sense for a government to start telling us what software the business should use or not use? Consumers already have the right to decline pre-installed software: don't buy the laptop. There, yo…

If you don't like Cyclospora , don't buy lettuce infected with it. Similar regulatory problems, at least with the lettuce the diarrhea is temporary.

Are you suggesting that you never know if the computer you are buying has windows on it or not?

This is not the same thing at all. These computers all advertise that they come with Windows. It isn't like when you buy it, you have a 5% chance of it being infected with Windows.

If the Cyclospora lettuce was labeled as containing Cyclospora, and you could choose to buy that lettuce or some other lettuce, then yes, it wouldn't be a problem.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#190

I also raised an eyebrow at "the vast majority of laptops are only sold with a specific proprietary operating system: Microsoft Windows", but after looking at some estimates it seems legit. Probably only about 1 in 10 laptops is a Mac. Software developers really just live in a different world than normal people. It got me thinking though: what is a laptop? People probably count Chromebooks, and that seems fair. Is a…

A portable IBM PC is a laptop (lawful good).
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