From: Dr. Jeffrey Race (jrace_at_attglobal.net)
Date: Sat May 04 2002 - 09:42:36 EDT
On Sat, 4 May 2002 11:17:00 +0100, John Poltorak wrote:
>You pay your supplier for your cmputer. There is some contract between
the
>two of you. Your supplier provided a computer which had Windows
>pre-loaded. You had no say in whether Windows came on it, so you cannot
be
>bound by some sort of trumped up third party agreement.
Legally you bought the computer and you own the hardware. It came
with an option to use MS s/w if you click "I agree". If you don't
agree, you are obliged (and this is spelled out in documentation
I have seen) to stop, power down the computer, boot from a floppy,
and run format c:. Then you are free to load any OS on it you
want. I have done this many times.
I am not apologizing for MS. This is just the way it works. The
proper remedy for MS abuse of its monopoly position is not to trash
the legal system but to end the monopoly.
Jeffrey Race
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