Infinitely Indexed Memory Bank

It turns out that as a die-hard Linux user, there’s little more irritating than having to buy a new PC and a pre-installed Windows operating system when all you want is the computer to install Linux on. Why should one pay for a Microsoft operating system when you’re not going to use it?

It turns out that there is a clause in the Windows license [sic] that allows you to claim a refund on a pre-install provided that you can prove that you have wiped it from your sustem and that you return the install disks unused. That was quite hard to do, but nevertheless, some enterprising folk set up Windows Refund Day to encourage this to be done.

For many of us wondering about the recent Microsoft-Novell ‘patent’ deal and why M$ is so keen to suddenly get in bed with Free (FLOSS) Software, the sowing of FUD about the number of patent violations in Linux would seem to be enough. There is also the discord that Novell has wrought by joining with M$; they couldn’t possibly have thought the Open Source community would be pleased. The newswire today has reminded me that there’s a third reason that Steve Balmer might want to look as though he’s cosying up and being interoperable: €777.5M of them.

This subject hasn’t raised it’s head since the EU software patent hoo-ha of a couple of years ago. The attempt by big business to get s/w patents incorporated into EU law in the same (damaging) way as the are in US law failed – thankfully – but that doesn’t mean it went away. There have been other moves afoot to sneak various bits through under the guise of other EU legislation; again, thankfully, nothing serious has made it.