Windows Refund Day Events (Orange County)

Get Some (Dead) Presidents Back on President's DayReport from the Event

(this is a VERY preliminary report, bear with me!)

Short answer: we did NOT get a refund. Four of us in Irvine turned up for refunds; approximately ten more people (excluding press) showed up for moral support. One person who had intended to show up was apparently getting warm refund fuzzies from Hitachi and decided not to come. The four of us had systems from HP, Dell and Compaq.

I'm VERY tired, so this is going to be short.

Well, we got there and were initially outnumbered by the press <g>, but
more people showed up. All told, we had four people who brought their
refund eligibility docs (two HP users, one Compaq user (me), one Dell
user). We had another 8-10 people (excluding press) show up.

Microsoft was gracious enough to provide a room for us to meet in as well
as personnel to answer our questions and talk to the press. One man
brought his son; they gave the son the game of his choice. The rest of us
got refreshments. As someone pointed out, they were well-organized enough
to have a banner welcoming the Linux users hanging at the front of the
room.

No PowerPoint presentations though. <g>

I handed out Linux Journals and stickers as well as SuSE and Caldera CDs.
Much thanks to the manufacturers for their support.

A more extensive report from attendee David H. Dennis can be found here.

Those interested in the Silicon Valley event will want to click here.

Feb 15: Windows Refund Day (aka President's Day)

Time: High Noon
Place: Microsoft offices in Irvine (near the 405 and Jamboree)
Events:

Those of you who have a "qualifying product" for which you can apply for a refund are encouraged to bring your product with you. If you are planning on being one of these people, please contact me in advance so we can make sure you bring all the supporting documentation that will help your claim.
Those who don't are encouraged to come lend moral support, enjoy handing out CDs, radiating in the vibes and all that feel-good stuff. We have SuSE CDs courtesy of SuSE and presents from the publishers of LinuxJournal. Thanks to our sponsors

There are two events planned in the "greater Orange County" area:

The March on Microsoft in Irvine. To join the email list for this event, send an email request to majordomo@windows-refund.org with a body of subscribe oc-events-l
The quiet gathering in Long Beach, where SuSE CDs will be handed out, also has an email list.

For those who live a little further-flung, there are also Microsoft offices in Santa Monica. Jeff has agreed to handle events in Santa Monica. Email him about any arrangements.

After the gathering at Microsoft, we will likely hit one or more of the following. I am still trying to get permission for these, though it's hard because I work all day.

Fry's (would you like some Linux with that?). In OC, there's Fountain Valley and Anaheim.
CompUSA (because they're there). There's one in Fountain Valley at Warner and the 405 (cross-street is Magnolia) and another at Oso parkway and the 5
MicroCenter, though I really like them and they have better Linux support than ANYONE. They're located at the 55 Freeway and Edinger.
Gateway (because they only sell PCs with Windows, though there are rumors they will be offering Linux machines in the future). I know of locations in Westminster (Beach Blvd. & the 405) and Mission Viejo (right off the 5 at Oso, right near Gateway).

If you would like to offer other suggestions or help clear the way for some of these events, please email me at the address at the bottom of the page. Thanks.

What we need:

"Sacrificial Lambs" -- we need people who qualify for the refund to attend and apply in person to Microsoft for the Refund. Only your unused software will be sacrificed....
Volunteers!
Flyers to distribute that give information about alternatives.

The idea is to:

Return unused copies of Windows (typically OEM versions) in compliance with the EULA.
Hand out Linux CDs (those who use other OSes, such as BeOS and FreeBSD, are also welcome to hand out CDs)
To hand out information about obtaining a refund on Windows that pre-shipped with one's computer. Note that this flyer should specifically state that we are not advocating software piracy.
Provide information on support for users of non-Windows operating systems. In other words, we should tell people who might be interested in Linux or FreeBSD about our groups, when they meet, what the mailing lists are, etc.

Remember: Be polite.

Who Might Be Eligible for a Refund?

This is an important question. Obviously, it depends on licensing specifics, which I can't know. But here are some example scenarios:

You bought a machine that shipped with Windows and you immediately installed another OS on that computer without accepting the license agreement.
You bought a machine that shipped with Windows9x and you immediately installed a WindowsNT license.
You already had a Windows license that covered your machine (i.e. from a site license or from a separately-purchased copy of Windows).

In other words you can be a Windows user and still be eligible for the refund.

Note that we are not advocating software piracy. This is not to be used as a scam to get money refunded for products that are USED.

Links to Other Protest Sites

If you have or know of a Windows Refund Day event in Southern California, please send me a link so I can keep this page current. Thanks.

The original refund story can be found here.

The call to arms for others around the world can be found here.

The Windows Refund Newsletter can be found here.

Press stories about the Windows Refund can be found linked from here. Please note that if you HAVE any press releases or clippings, that this guy would appreciate being told about it. I for one am impressed that, within three days of the original Slashdot post, that such major press coverage has occurred.

The Windows Refund Protest Day was, as is typical, an idea spawned from the Silicon Valley Linux User's Group. Details of their protest idea can be found here.

Contact Information

Send email to deirdre