Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft to Struggle to Force People to Buy Windows

Poor puppies!

Puppy



Summary: Action in France shows Microsoft's grip on OEMs eroding, leaving room for GNU/Linux instead

JUST over a week after Microsoft got caught trying to use the boot sequence to boot the competition out of the way (eliminating the 'curse' of competing, e.g. with excuses and lies), there is still coverage about it and possibly legal action. Microsoft is extremely unlikely to get away with it, which is why we didn't feel the need to cover it all that much. Several years ago we wrote about French OEM-related actions -- public protests striving to stop the forced sales of Microsoft Windows along with new computers. Although not much happened since these actions were reported some years ago (we covered the issue in early site posts about OEMs), it was clear that Microsoft already struggled to sell the story about lack of choice being of benefit to the customer.



AFUL and the FFII took further action some months ago and brought the issue to EU politicians who did express some interest in taking real action. Whether related to this or not, there is a breakthrough in France.

"France getting ready to eliminate forced purchase of OS," writes someone in USENET about this new report which says: "Amendments to France's draft law on 'reinforcing consumers' rights, protection and information' have been proposed with the purpose of putting an end to bundled hardware/software sales, the French advocacy organisation for free software and open standards APRIL announced on 27 September 2011.

"AFUL and the FFII took further action some months ago and brought the issue to EU politicians who did express some interest in taking real action.""Bundled hardware/software sales, APRIL explained, consists of an anti-competitive commercial practice that prevents consumers from purchasing a computer without having to pay for pre-installed software. The public discussions on the draft law at the National Assembly (the lower house of Parliament) started on Wednesday 28 September 2011.

The poster cites Cablegate and asks: "What is Microsoft, a third rate software company, to do but contact the US embassy and complain so that the US embassy can go trolling the French on behalf illegal Microsoft industrial support.

"Nothing is too sacred for Microsoft including interfering in the self determination of the French nation through use of US diplomatic services."

"Best news I've read in a while, but then this Bill still has to pass, and you can be guaranteed Sweaty [Ballmer] is filling his grease gun and violin case as we speak," writes Homer. "Assuming France can resist Microsoft's inevitable "lobbying", this is good news for the whole of Europe, not just France, since even if the rest of Europe doesn't adopt the same policy then we can all just buy our PCs from France - Windows Tax-free.

"If the PCs landed in France first, then it can be shipped to anywhere in EU by a third party and make a heck of a saving when sold in markets and and small shops," wrote the original poster again. "The thing that is most worrying that could scupper this legislation is still what the US diplomats are doing behind everyone's back acting on the orders of Microsoft to interfere in French self determination."

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 10/06/2025: Jaws at 50 and US Democracy Crushed Very Rapidly (Martial Law Seems Imminent)
Links for the day
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part VII: Washing Their Hands After Corruption and Abuse
"Tragedy or comedy?"
Culling Bad RSS Feeds of Bad Sites
Not throwing out the baby with the bathwater
Live as You Preach
technology is fast becoming dysphoric
 
Links 10/06/2025: Apple Hype and Physical Attacks on Bloggers
Links for the day
Gemini Links 10/06/2025: Loon Lake, Farming, and Forth
Links for the day
If 'Microsoft v Techrights' is Dealt With by a 'Microsoft Court' (or a Court Outsourced to Microsoft)
More on that later
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 09, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 09, 2025
Gemini Protocol Turns Six in 10 Days From Now
If you haven't tried it yet, then give it a go today
Gemini Links 09/06/2025: Addition Addiction and Nitride
Links for the day
Links 09/06/2025: Science, Hardware Projects, and Democracy Receding
Links for the day
Computers Got Smaller, So GNU/Linux Got Bigger
Many people here recognise the lack of urgency (or need) to get expensive new laptops
BetaNews is a Plagiarism and LLM Slop Hub, the Chief Editor Isn't Addressing This Problem Anymore
SS Fagioli is basically a parasite leeching off or exploiting other people's work
Links 09/06/2025: Chaos in Los Angeles and Hurricane Season
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Grows at Windows' Expense and Microsoft Trolls Infest and Maliciously Target Articles About It
Microsoft is - and has long been - organised crime
They Say I'm Mr. Bombastic
They didn't take good lawyers
Links 09/06/2025: Windows TCO and Many Data Breaches
Links for the day
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part VI: Political Stunts by Former President Edyta Demby-Siwek and the Connection to Profound Corruption at EUIPO
it's like a money-laundering operation where one politician rewards another at taxpayers' expense
Gemini Links 09/06/2025: Pipelines and Splitgate
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 08, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, June 08, 2025
Links 08/06/2025: Tiananmen Carnage Censorship Persists, North Korean Goes Offline
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/06/2025: Love as an Ethnographic Method and Monitorix Gemini-Frontend v0.1
Links for the day
Links 08/06/2025: Exposure of More GAFAM Surveillance and Social Security Records Compromised
Links for the day
Linux Foundation is a Mediator for Microsoft et al, Not for Small Companies That Support Rather Than Attack the GPL
Many people still wrongly assume that because it is called "Linux Foundation", then it is pro-Linux and represents the same mindset
This Past Friday, Confirming What We Said All Along About Brett Wilson LLP: It's Shrinking, Has Considerable Debt, Loss of Net Assets Despite the Microsoft SLAPP Money
The documents only became publicly available less than 2 days ago
Some of the Many Reasons We Sued Microsofters for Harassment
perpetrators of harassment
For 20 Years Many People Were Sharecropping for Canonical's Oligarch, Now He's Deleting All Their Contributions
"Ubuntu has erased instead of archiving the trove of material at Ubuntu Forums"
There Was Always Too Much 'Crazy Stuff' Going on Around Freenode
What many IRC users lost sight of
Exposing Crime is Not a Crime (It Never Was)
In the eyes of rich and powerful people, those who speak about their crimes are the "criminals"
GNU/Linux Distros Abandoning Microsoft GitHub
Will curl be next to leave Microsoft GitHub?
Expect More XBox Mass Layoffs Soon If the Rumours Are True
From a Microsoft media operative
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 07, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, June 07, 2025
Europe Needs to Move Away From GAFAM; The Sooner, the Better
Europe - not just the EU - must abandon GAFAM as soon as possible
The Issue Isn't GNOME's Promotion of Diversity But GNOME Corruption, Abuse, Censorship, and Worse
So-called "Conservative" (republican, pro-Trump, bigoted) people want you to think the problem with GNOME is politics
When the News Sources Become Scarce and Increasingly Full of Polluted/Contaminated 'Content' (With LLM Slop and Slop Images)
Integrity matters
"Linux" Sites That Spew Out LLM Slop
We're lacking enough material for another "Slopwatch"
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part V: Breaking the Law, Just Like EPO
We'll hopefully cover some of the pertinent details later this year