Right, since it’s on that list, there is something I have wondered for ages: What exactly is a 'Windows refund’ ? Now, I’ve bought my PC at a local manufacturer, ordered it without any Windows ( no need to buy Windows 7 twice ), and also got it without any Windows. So what exactly is the point to ask for a refund? Isn’t it ironic, I thought building your own PC makes you leet as hell? How come the problem results from a dependency on Dell etc. then?

Simple!

If there’s a Microsoft Tax, then there must be a Microsoft Refund, right? You’re just not using the right form of words down at Best Buy.

Me, I’m looking forwards to the Ubuntu refund. It’s a reasonable argument that anybody who has wasted their time on the fscking thing deserves one.

At one point he refers to Wine as the “Windows Emulator”, oblivious to the acronym’s meaning of “wine is not an emulator”. It’s just an API wrapper for Win32 to POSIX functions.

“WINE Is Not an Emulator” is a backronym. It’s the WINE project giving themselves a supposedly clever recursive-acronym name.

It was originally “WINdows Emulator”.

An archived post containing the WINE FAQ from 1998;

Subject: WINE (WINdows Emulator) Frequently Asked Questions

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/windows-emulation/wine-faq/

Actually, the Windows Refund MAKES SENSE.

See, before you are allowed to use Windows for the first time, you are forced to agree to an EULA.

However, if your company’s policy, personal religion, personal ethics or whatever don’t allow you to agree to the EULA, then you it’s only right to be entitled to a refund for a product you have purchased, but can’t use, due to that arbitrary EULA being thrown in your face without any pre-purchase warning.

The same of course applies for any other EULA, like the MacOS X EULA or the GPL EULA (although you can’t get a refund for that last one, lol).

By the way, if you do decide to make use of the refund, your windows key (the one at the sticker on the bottom of the laptop) will be canceled and you will have some money returned to you by Microsoft.

Many people think that the refund is a silly thing, because you are not entitled to a refund for the bundled monitor or cd rom drive that came with the laptop, but I personally think it’s the right thing, because the manufacturer of the monitor/cdrom drive never asked you to sign to an EULA, like Microsoft/Apple/FSF does.

If you ask me, all EULAs, including the GPL, should be invalidated, because they are post-purchase contracts, an hence are null. In fact, many countries in Europe have declared EULAs to be invalid.

PS: I actually made use of the refund once. A laptop I once purchased (toshiba i think) was loaded with tons of crapware, and if you tried to uninstall anything, the custom Windows XP installation would start shooting blue screens. I couldn’t stand the crapware, so, i made use of the refund, got some peanuts returned from Microsoft (40euros i think, this is the price laptop manufacturers purchase windows from microsoft) and then purchased a Windows XP OEM cd rom.

PS: Yes, the GPL is an evil eula too. They cancel your rights for a warranty, which I think it’s horrible when said GPL software comes shipped with a piece of hardware, and is advertised as a feature in the box. If you take out the copy aspect, it doesn’t differ much from the microsoft EULA. But the loons ALWAYS turn a blind eye to that. Strange…