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Get your Windows license refund

en.refund4freedom.org

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Re: Get your Windows license refund

#81

Post by redeeman »

gwbas1c wrote: post #76

Seems like it makes a lot more sense to buy a computer without Windows preinstalled. > Device manufacturers and vendors should not impose an operating system or software on consumers This is not a reasonable expectation. Hardware needs software to work, and software runs on an operating system. You can't expect every vendor in the work of every kind of product you can buy to offer you a slightly different version tha…

i think its reasonable that people who sell computer monitors also demand you purchase a computer or other output device from them. Why do you feel differently here? after all, a computer monitor needs a computer or other output device to work, no?

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#82

Post by deadbunny »

gwbas1c wrote: post #76

Seems like it makes a lot more sense to buy a computer without Windows preinstalled. > Device manufacturers and vendors should not impose an operating system or software on consumers This is not a reasonable expectation. Hardware needs software to work, and software runs on an operating system. You can't expect every vendor in the work of every kind of product you can buy to offer you a slightly different version tha…

this has only been somewhat possoble for laptops within the last decade even then you're limited to a narrower selection of models.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#84

Post by didjdjfkgk »

redeeman wrote: post #81
gwbas1c wrote: post #76

Seems like it makes a lot more sense to buy a computer without Windows preinstalled. > Device manufacturers and vendors should not impose an operating system or software on consumers This is not a reasonable expectation. Hardware needs software to work, and software runs on an operating system. You can't expect every vendor in the work of every kind of product you can buy to offer you a slightly different version tha…

i think its reasonable that people who sell computer monitors also demand you purchase a computer or other output device from them. Why do you feel differently here? after all, a computer monitor needs a computer or other output device to work, no?

[dead]

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#85

Post by Theodores »

vkaku wrote: post #2

This is great. It tells you how many manufacturers make it easy and difficult to get refunds. ASUS is the most specific one, albeit their refund range is between 9 and 65 EUR. Great work.

Now you tell me...

After drowning my last laptop in tea I needed a PC urgently and bought ASUS. Had I known that a refund was possible, would I have applied, to get what amounts to £10 refund on a £2K machine?

I am not sure!

The Windows install means my laptop has some value in the second-hand market, should I need to sell. Without it, I am not going to easily find a buyer, because it is still not yet 'the year of the Linux desktop', and even then, stock Ubuntu is not as fashionable as some other Linux variants.

What did surprise me was how flaky Windows is these days. If memory serves me correctly, I needed to boot into Windows to turn 'bitlocker' off, in order to resize the drive for my Ubuntu partition. However, there was no UI to turn 'bitlocker' on again afterwards. Allegedly I need a 'pro' version of Windows to do that, since the UI is just absent from the 'Home' version of Windows.

This process means that I did 'accept the EULA' and therefore denied myself the opportunity to claim back the Windows tax. Drat!

In previous decades I kept the Windows install just in case I needed MS Office or Adobe products to do work. MS Outlook was the 'gotcha', but then they got the web version of MS Outlook working acceptably.

Nowadays I am quite confident that there is nothing Windows that I want, so this use case has gone, yet I have new rationale to keep paying the Windows tax, to 'insure' my PC with some resale value.

I wish manufacturers such as ASUS provided Linux support, even if in a 'community' guise, so as to not upset Microsoft. With my example, I needed to change the power setting on the Wifi card to ensure that Bluetooth worked for the mouse. That was it, yet I had to work that out for myself, with no instructions provided. If I was completely new to Linux then I might have struggled with this or lacked the confidence to spend £2K on a machine that might not run my chosen OS.

In 2026 we still have a long way to go!

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#86

Post by glimshe »

Theodores wrote: post #85
vkaku wrote: post #2

This is great. It tells you how many manufacturers make it easy and difficult to get refunds. ASUS is the most specific one, albeit their refund range is between 9 and 65 EUR. Great work.

Now you tell me... After drowning my last laptop in tea I needed a PC urgently and bought ASUS. Had I known that a refund was possible, would I have applied, to get what amounts to £10 refund on a £2K machine? I am not sure! The Windows install means my laptop has some value in the second-hand market, should I need to sell. Without it, I am not going to easily find a buyer, because it is still not yet 'the year of th…

You are confused about your dates. 2027 is and has always been the year of Linux on the Desktop, so hold tight.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#87

Post by p2detar »

cpa wrote: post #13
p2detar wrote: post #3

I finally found the time this year to replace my parents' old T-series Thinkpad Windows 8 with Linux Mint. I also upgraded the hard drive to an SSD. The result - a 15 years old machine i5 Dual Core with 6GB RAM now boots and works extremely fast as compared to before. Also with USB and wireless mouse support out of the box - I didn't have to touch anything. Sorry, if this offends anyone, but Windows (non-Server editi…

In my experience, unfortunately it’s fast until you need to use a webapp (Gmail, FB, Netflix…). For document editing or code it’s pretty awesome but a sluggish web is a deal breaker for many these days.

They mostly use Firefox on the laptop, like 95% of the time - FB, YouTube, GDrive, some web games. I also got them uBlock installed. No issues so far. Firefox works really fast. Memory pressure is low, even when watching YT videos, probably 1.5-2GB at most. I though 6GB won't be enough and installed zram, but honestly - the OS never touches the swap, at least when I tested it. Will check the state again in a couple of months.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#88

Post by p2detar »

bayindirh wrote: post #18
p2detar wrote: post #3

I finally found the time this year to replace my parents' old T-series Thinkpad Windows 8 with Linux Mint. I also upgraded the hard drive to an SSD. The result - a 15 years old machine i5 Dual Core with 6GB RAM now boots and works extremely fast as compared to before. Also with USB and wireless mouse support out of the box - I didn't have to touch anything. Sorry, if this offends anyone, but Windows (non-Server editi…

Yes, I'm offended, because you excluded Windows Server.

Fair point, hehe. Well in all fairness, I do use it at work because of our customers, but other than that I'd never touch it.

Re: Get your Windows license refund

#90

Post by ant6n »

glimshe wrote: post #86
Theodores wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now you tell me... After drowning my last laptop in tea I needed a PC urgently and bought ASUS. Had I known that a refund was possible, would I have applied, to get what amounts to £10 refund on a £2K machine? I am not sure! The Windows install means my laptop has some value in the second-hand market, should I need to sell. Without it, I am not going to easily find a buyer, because it is still not yet 'the year of th…

You are confused about your dates. 2027 is and has always been the year of Linux on the Desktop, so hold tight.

…always has been
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