A Guy Gets the “Windows Tax” Refund from Dell!

What is “the Windows Tax?” Well, evil Microsoft has an agreement with every PC maker saying that they WILL install Windows on every PC sold. So, what if you are buying a PC to install Linux on it? Well, you still have to pay Microsoft’s evil “Windows Tax” and you end up owning a copy of Windows whether you want it or not! So, what if you went to the trouble to PROVE that you didn’t use Windows and demanded the “tax” be returned to you? Well… guess what? A guy in England actually did it!

Dell customer gets Windows refund

“Dell today gave freelance programmer and sysadmin Dave Mitchell, of Sheffield, UK, a refund of 47 pounds ($89) for the unused copy of Microsoft Windows XP Home SP2 bundled with his new Dell Inspiron 640m laptop, Mitchell says. Dell also refunded the tax, for a total of £55.23 ($105).”

Wow! What if we all did this? I suspect the numbers for Windows sales would go down, and the installed base of Linux would go up from a statistical point of view!