Persistence Pays Off With Israel's First Windows Refund

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."

Re:And parent skimped on glasses

[K. S. Kyosuke]

My name sounds Jewish enough as well, and in spite of that, it is not enough for me to be a Jew. If his mother was not a Jew and he was not raised as one, which is possible, he is not considered a Jew, at least not from the traditional Judaistic point of view. Of course, there were people with different opinions [holocaustr...roject.org] as to what makes a person a Jew, but fortunately, they lost (not only) the argument. :-)

This Is Wonderful But . . .

[LuYu]

I am of course overjoyed at the fact that there is someone who managed not to be forced to pay for Windows, but I still have to ask this question: Did Dell take the loss or did MS?

Aside from saving money, refusing to grant an undesirable vendor money is another reason to refuse a purchase. If Dell still paid MS, then MS is still insulated from market forces. How can customers choose against MS if MS gets paid even when those customers do not purchase MS software?

I hope the next time this happens, Dell will supply a written document certifying that it has refused payment to MS for the copy in question.