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Whaaaaa?! Microsoft has had a long standing policy to strongly discourage vendors from selling “Naked PC’s.” Naked PC’s are basically computers with no operating system, which Microsoft has long viewed as machines that will run a pirated OS. Linux users have long disagreed with this policy, and hate the dreaded hidden “Windows Tax” that accompanies every PC purchase. But it seems that Dell is refunding customers who refuse to run Windows.

Dave Mitchell, freelance programmer and consultant, claimed the US company issued a £50 rebate after he refused to agree to the Windows licence agreement on a new Dell laptop he bought. He made the claim based on a clause in Microsoft’s terms and conditions that state Dell, as manufacturer, will refund any unused products.

Although he photographed each stage of the process to prove that he had not installed the Windows platform, Dell did not make a fuss over the provenance of his claim, and issued a refund of £55.23 within days.

I hope this trend continues, because I believe the end users should not always be forced into buying Windows.

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