My Initial Rant Re: The Refund
This is what I sent to the original Windows Refund Page. Matt was
quick to write back and include the first set of documents I was able
to scrounge up. DON'T ANYBODY BLAME HIM, 'k?
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 13:11:41 -0700
From: "Donna."
[To: and Cc: lines snipped -d.]
Subject: Windows Refund Page
Re: http://www.thenoodle.com/refund/
I am pleased to =finally= see some advocacy action being taken on refunds
for pre-loaded Windows products.
However, if you're interested in some historical accuracy, I feel I
deserve at least some credit for "starting it all". In February 1997 I
purchased a laptop computer and was outraged to be forced to pay Microsoft
a commission when I had no intention of using the prebundled Win95. The
wording in the installation led me to read the EULA, and in that document
I discovered I was due a refund for returning the preload. I assumed
others had seen the EULA and responded to it, so I queried appropriate
Linux newsgroups (comp.os.linux.misc, comp.os.linux.advocacy,
alt.os.linux.caldera) and mailing lists (the Linux-Women mailing list, the
Systers mailing list), for pointers on traveling through what I assumed
would be a quagmire. From Systers, I received a few queries about Linux,
and from there and from Linux-Women I received well wishes for the
adventure ahead of me. The responses I received from the newsgroups were,
in general, condescending and assumed I had not researched the
possibilities of building my own or of buying a system with Linux
pre-installed. (To their credit, a few of the respondees apologized when
I pointed out that building my own notebook wasn't an option. At that
time, comparable systems offered by VA Research, the only place I could
find Linux pre-loaded on notebook computers, cost double the price of the
system I ended up buying.) Not one person who replied to me thought a
refund would ever really happen.
Despite the negative responses, I corresponded with the manufacturer of my
laptop and eventually received a refund for my unused Win95. From there,
I queried _The Linux Gazette_ for interest in a story of my experiences,
but received no response. I submitted a short article of my experiences
to http://www.slashdot.org, but it was never posted. At one point, I even
sent a letter to Bill Machrone regarding the refund
portion of the EULA, but my letter was never published or even referenced
in _PC Magazine_ or any other ZD publication, that I could ever discover.
Regardless, I continued to mention the refund whenever the subject of
preloads came up in various newsgroups and mailing lists, including but
not limited to the AM-INFO list and http://www.slashdot.org, My partner
talked about the refund, in various places, as well. IOW, word has been
out that (1) the EULA gives promise of a refund, and (2) refunds =are= in
fact possible, for almost two years now.
While it is not my intention to diminish Geoffrey Bennett's contribution,
I feel that this situation is typical of the way in which women's
contributions become devalued in the history books. For that reason I
thought I would at least speak up now and make an attempt to set the
record straight. Was it merely that I was ahead of my time, and the world
needed the much-publicized monopoly case against Microsoft to care or even
believe that a lowly individual could take a stand against the behemoth?
Or was it more than that?
For the women's history books, at least, it's just another example of a
by-now familiar story: they said it couldn't be done; a woman did it, and
everyone ignored her; a year and a half later, a man did it, and the world
rallies around to make it a movement and a date is set to turn the
movement into a "press event".
While I'm glad to see people are finally willing to stand up and refuse to
pay for a preloaded operating system they had no choice but to accept and
have no intention of using, I can't help but wonder what events in the
computer industry might have gone differently over the past two years if
anyone had listened when I spoke up before.
Donna.
Cybrarian, NiEstu
donna.s@niestu.com
Donna.
Last modified: Thu Jan 28 01:42:11 MST 1999