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A knowledge and experience repository on how to reclaim your "Windows Tax" |
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| The only way to counteract that "Windows Tax" on PCs and laptops is to ask for a refund, but details on this process are not easy to find, and there is no central repository to allow people gather and share their information with the process. Changing that is the purpose of this section in our Fellowship page. Please feel free to add your own experience or links to information about attempts by others! |
The only way to counteract that "Windows Tax" on PCs and laptops is to ask for a refund, but details on this process are not easy to find, and there is no central repository to allow people gather and share their information with the process. Changing that is the purpose of this page. |
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| * Article about refund strategy: http://www.linux.com/articles/59381 * To prevent trouble with refund there are some tipps how to buy hardware without Microsoft Tax on [[Hardware_vendors|the hardware vendor's page]]. * Fabian Thommen ordered a Dell without XP from the very beginning (no refund necessary) http://rca.snm-hgkz.ch/blog/windows-refunds/ * Serge Wroclawski gives a counterpoint for any excuses the vendor might have http://community.linux.com/community/07/01/03/227237.shtml?tid=12 |
* To prevent trouble with refund, there are some tipps how to buy hardware without Microsoft Tax at [[Hardware_vendors|the hardware vendor's page]]. * Read the details about the Microsoft license you want to get refunded on [[http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/useterms|Microsoft's software license terms page]]. * [[http://www.racketware.info/index|racketware]] also collected refund cases * Racketware launched a new campaign aimint at students whose university has a deal with Microsoft: [[http://www.racketware.info/msdnaa/call-on-students|My University offers me my Microsoft Windows ® license Worldwide Campaign]] * Serge Wroclawski's article [[http://www.linux.com/articles/59381|"How to get a Windows tax refund"]] from January 2007 |
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| Please provide date, kind of Microsoft License, company you bought it, ... | Below, there is a list of countries (in alphabetical order) from which we either received interesting news or reports about people trying to get reimbursement. If you want to add a report, please provide date, kind of Microsoft License, company you bought it from and other interesting information. You can also attach your correspondence to your report. |
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| == France == * Detaxe.org doing work on the refund in France: The [[http://www.aful.org/|AFUL]] (Association francophone des utilisateurs de Linux) put into action a [[http://www.detaxe.org/|working group on the refund issue]]. See also [[http://www.detaxe.org/spip.php?rubrique34|specific experiences with refund]] and a [[http://forum.framasoft.org/viewtopic.php?t=20785|detailed refund procedure]]. There's also some info about [[http://jlerhun.free.fr/detaxe/index.html|refund in France concerning laptops purchased through Lidl]]. |
* [[WindowsTaxRefund/Belgium|Belgium]] * [[WindowsTaxRefund/CzechRepublic|Czech Republic]] * [[WindowsTaxRefund/Denmark|Denmark]] * [[WindowsTaxRefund/France|France]] * [[WindowsTaxRefund/Germany|Germany]] * [[WindowsTaxRefund/Ireland|Ireland]] * [[WindowsTaxRefund/Italy|Italy]] * [[WindowsTaxRefund/Portugal|Portugal]] * [[WindowsTaxRefund/Russia|Russian Federation]] * [[WindowsTaxRefund/Spain|Spain]] * [[WindowsTaxRefund/Switzerland|Switzerland]] * [[WindowsTaxRefund/UnitedKingdom|United Kingdom]] * [[WindowsTaxRefund/OutsideEurope|Countries outside of Europe]] |
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| == UK == * Dave Mitchell (UK) gets refund from Dell UK: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/110706-dell-windows.html |
= Unsorted Information = Here we collect information and links that currently do not fit anywhere else. Please think twice about alternative locations before posting something here. |
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| == United States == * Strategy for getting a refund in the US (by Steve Qualline, Linuxjournal, 2003) http://linuxjournal.com/article/7040 == Belgium == * Refunding Windows-Tax in Belgium: [[Windows-Tax_Refund/Belgium|Experiences of people seeking their Windows-Tax-Refund in Belgium]] * Belgian attempt to get reimbursed for a Toshiba: http://wiki.open-minds.org/vente_liee:historique_remboursement_bundle_logiciel_portege_r500 == CZ == * CZ: Lenovo fails to silence GNU/Linux user on Windows refund: http://osor.eu/news/cz-lenovo-fails-to-silence-gnu-linux-user-on-windows-refund == Germany == We are currently gathering information. Please add information here or write an e-mail to germany@fsfeurope.org . === Lenovo === * 2007-?: Michael Voigt reports a successful refund in Germany. The refund is 30€ and this forum entry describes [[http://www.heise.de/newsticker/foren/S-So-gehts-bei-lenovo/forum-124511/msg-13584630/read/|how to handle the IBM/Lenovo refund]] procedure (german only). * 2008-08-17: Matthias Kirschner got 30 EUR with the same form as discribed in Michael Voigt's refund for a Microsoft Vista License * 2008-09-18: Björn Schießle failed with a Microsoft Vista refund and get the same response from Lenovo as Hanno Böck * 2008-10-?: Hanno Böck failed with a Microsoft Vista refund http://hboeck.de/archives/658-Lenovo,-Linux-and-Windows-refunding.html with the same form as Matthias and Michael === Dell === * Marcus Dapp (CH) [[http://www.thealternative.ch/tiki-index.php?page=Software-Refund-en|got refund from Dell Germany]]. == Italy == * Rimborso del Sistema Operativo Microsoft Windows preinstallato. [[http://www.aduc.it/dyn/rimborsowindows/|(le iniziative giudiziarie dell'ADUC)]] * Rimborso per Windows: funziona anche in Italia [[http://www.attivissimo.net/rimborso_windows/istruzioni.htm|(a cura di Paolo Attivissimo)]] * [[http://www.linuxsi.com/|LinuxSi]] * [[http://paolodelbene.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html|paolo del bene's blog entry]] about refund. (Has to be reviewed.) |
* [[http://pacoriviere.googlepages.com/TornarElUindous.html|Site gathering interesting info]] (in catalan) * [[http://teom.wordpress.com/2009/12/06/evading-the-microsoft-tax/|Evading the Microsoft Tax ]] Refund by amazon.co.uk for an Asus eeePC 1008 |
The "Windows Tax" has artificially increased hardware prices for users of GNU/Linux by a mandatory payment to Microsoft even though no Microsoft software is being used on these machines. The reason: Almost any computer and laptop is bundled with a Microsoft Windows licence. Most vendors will not sell computers without it because apparently their terms with Microsoft do not allow it.
The only way to counteract that "Windows Tax" on PCs and laptops is to ask for a refund, but details on this process are not easy to find, and there is no central repository to allow people gather and share their information with the process. Changing that is the purpose of this page.
General information
To prevent trouble with refund, there are some tipps how to buy hardware without Microsoft Tax at the hardware vendor's page.
Read the details about the Microsoft license you want to get refunded on Microsoft's software license terms page.
racketware also collected refund cases
Racketware launched a new campaign aimint at students whose university has a deal with Microsoft: My University offers me my Microsoft Windows ® license Worldwide Campaign
Serge Wroclawski's article "How to get a Windows tax refund" from January 2007
Information for specific countries
Below, there is a list of countries (in alphabetical order) from which we either received interesting news or reports about people trying to get reimbursement. If you want to add a report, please provide date, kind of Microsoft License, company you bought it from and other interesting information. You can also attach your correspondence to your report.
Unsorted Information
Here we collect information and links that currently do not fit anywhere else. Please think twice about alternative locations before posting something here.
Site gathering interesting info (in catalan)
Evading the Microsoft Tax Refund by amazon.co.uk for an Asus eeePC 1008