Persistence Pays Off With Israel's First Windows Refund 84
As Niv Lilian reports at Ynet News, Haifa (and the Haifa Linux Club)'s Zvi Devir just preferred to run Linux rather than the pre-installed Windows on his newly bought Dell computer, and didn't want to pay for the unwanted Windows system. Now Devir has prevailed, after a fight in Israeli small-claims court, to become the first Israeli to obtain a Windows refund (also in Hebrew), winning the $137 that Windows added to the cost of his machine and escaping the nondisclosure agreement that Dell had wanted him to abide by as a condition. Perhaps others will follow his lead. Update: 12/03 23:02 GMT by T : Zvi Devir wrote with an update: "BTW, the settlement was out of court, before any court sessions took place."
Read the article. (Score:5, Informative)
This doesn't have to do with Windows as much as it has to do with Dell.
Basically, Dell said (in the EULA) that they would refund money if you don't agree to the terms. So that's what the guy did.
If anything, this just shows how few people read license agreements than anything else. And shows that, once again, 'customer support' still stinks :)
Re:Not even implied (Score:1, Informative)
Well, according to Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] 76% of the population of Israel is Jewish. So while there is a difference between "Israeli" and "Jew", it's not a particularly large difference.
Re:Not even implied (Score:2, Informative)
Sure there is no label on this that says "Jew", however, based on contextual evidence can conclude that the person responsible for this likely practices Judaism.
Since you want to talk statistics, 37% of Israelis are atheist or agnostic [google.com]. That suggests to me that they don't "practice" Judaism at least in a religious, worship the supernatural way, although many may identify culturally/ethnically with Judaism and still maintain their traditionally Jewish lifestyles, ethical values, and heritage.
Re:Not even implied (Score:4, Informative)
You are absolutely right. However, may I note that Zvi is a very traditional Jewish male name. It means "deer".
Re:Isn't that a Macintosh? (Score:1, Informative)
It's more than a "decent attempt at a knockoff"; that's an iBook, which can't even run Windows except via some messy emulation.
Re:What about the manufacturers? (Score:3, Informative)
Depends what country you're in, probably.
Canada and the US have laws against bundling - requiring the purchase of one product to purchase another product.
So the manufacturer can't require you to buy Windows if you buy the computer hardware.
How it is in other countries, I have no idea.