Getting Microsoft to fund Linux development

The Register ran a report of how an enterprising reader got Dell to pay him back for the cost of the preinstalled Windows Vista (with a free upgrade to Windows 7). He donated the $115 refund to Linux Mint, which, in a round-about way, means that he got Redmond-based Microsoft to fund the development of Linux.

Graeme Gobbett managed to get his way by not accepting the default Windows End User License Agreement (EULA), opting to thrash the entire partition with the Linux distribution of his choice instead.

In a nutshell, Gobbett basically sent a number of carefully worded emails to Dell's customer support to reject the default EULA. He then asked for a refund, leveraging on the terms of the EULA exit clause. Bottom line: It took two months and 14 email exchanges with Dell, but he got his refund.

Of course, Gobbett did acknowledge that it was unlikely that Dell bothered to get the money from Microsoft for that license he wriggled his way out of. He suggests that there could be a cumulative effect if more users followed in his footsteps, in terms of "PC manufacturers' next round of negotiations with Microsoft, gently loosening their tight monopoly grip on the operating system market."

For the full account of what Gobbett did, check out his blog entry here.  

For more on this story:
- check out this article at The Register

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