The Refund Day of Windows 98 - Developer Diary #2

Hello to everyone...

It was February 15, 1999, in the San Francisco Bay Area as an ordinary day except in front of the Microsoft offices where a group of OpenSource activists was gathered to ask for reimbursement for something they did not want to use, and they did not use, they brought to Microsoft all the manuals and guides that came about Windows 98 so that their money was returned.

Several local media such as ABC, CNN, BCC, Channel 4 among others reported the anomalous situation that existed outside the Microsoft offices, several activists such as Lars Damerows, Brent Edwards or among all Eric Ramen the most enthusiastic activist. They talked to the media about the reason for the request for reimbursement, they said:

"We do not want use Windows 98 as our operating system, but we still have to pay for a license when we buy a computer because the company that manufactures them only provides this operating system".

Undoubtedly this was a great manifestation of the current technology that was had at that time, by create a new type of business, which was the technological intangible products, did not have a good control to prevent monopolies, little by little Windows it becomes the most popular operating system given the agreement it had with IBM, so it became so popular that it was believed that only Windows existed and for those who wanted to spend a little more was Apple's Macintosh, which if you think about It is very similar to what happens today, in fact, they make me think of the new technological monopolies that are emerging as the case of Facebook recently.

While there were still protests to request reimbursement of the payment of the Windows 98 license, one of the Microsoft spokesmen was interviewed, his name is Rob Bennett, which he expressed before the cameras: "The protest is a way of generating curiosity about Linux and thus attract more people " and also said "... If they want the refund of the license, they are in all their right, they should only follow the instructions of the company that manufactures the computer they bought".

Have you ever heard the expression "Catch-22", it is curious you know, this expression tries to describe the situation where you can not move from a starting point because the rules of the game contradict each other, such as when looking for a job and not You can apply to none due to lack of experience, but you do not have experience because everyone asks to have it. This was what the users of computers distributed by COMPAQ and Dell were living in. Most of them are companies that told them they should claim the refund with Microsoft but Microsoft said that the companies that distributed the computers were the ones that had to give the refund, undoubtedly a manipulation to the consumer in every rule.

At the end of the day, it was not reported that any user has received a refund for this case and this situation is almost forgotten. We should look at ourselves now as a technological world, at this moment do we have good licensing practices? Or are they still abusive against the consumer? It is necessary that we continue to support OpenSource, open source and free license, it is the only way in which as consumers we can escape the abusive practices of large companies.

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