If you don't use Windows, why should you pay for it?
That's the logic driving a group of Linux users who want to make good on a tiny clause built into the Windows end-user license. The clause offers a refund to PC owners who buy a computer preloaded with Windows 98, but don't use the operating system.
If it gathers steam, their effort could lead to legal action requiring Microsoft and PC vendors to make it easier to opt out of using the Windows OS on their PCs.
"I'm hoping in the long run we'll be able to pressure Microsoft to change their OEM contracts," said Matt Jensen a participant in the effort and webmaster for the Windows Refund Center. The site will coordinate and track efforts to obtain refunds from users' respective PC manufacturers.
The movement ramped up Tuesday, and the grassroots group has set aside 15 February as Windows Refund Day when those seeking to uninstall Windows from their PCs will send out their letters.
Jensen and others are contributing ideas to the Refund Center following the news of an Australian PC owner's effort to obtain a refund for his copy of Windows. Discussion of Geoffrey Bennett's saga began on Slashdot, a site popular with users of the alternative PC operating system Linux.
Attorney Erwin Shustak, chief litigator of securities and corporate finance at the law firm Shustak, Jalil, & Heller, said Bennett's effort may not lead to immediate, dramatic consequences, but could give rise to an eventual class-action lawsuit.
Microsoft and PC makers "had a contract that clearly said what [users] were entitled to do, and yet they didn't honor the contract," Shustak said of Bennett's story. "They made it extremely difficult for him to obtain what he was supposed to obtain. I believe it was an illusory clause; they had no procedure set up to honor it."
The Microsoft Windows End-User License Agreement, or EULA, that accompanies the IBM ThinkPad reads, "If you do not agree to the terms of this EULA, PC manufacturer and Microsoft are unwilling to license the software product to you. In such an event ... you should promptly contact PC manufacturer for instructions on a return of the unused product(s) for a refund."
Microsoft could not immediately be reached for comment.
Full story to follow.
