I was reading the official Linux Mint blog where I noticed an interesting post. A Linux Mint user recently bought a Dell Studio laptop computer, but he didn't want to use Windows. As a side note, very few laptops can be bought without Windows, and even when you can buy one without it, the price comes out to almost the same price or more expensive than the same computer with Windows pre-installed.
This specific Linux Mint blog post describes in detail how to get a refund from the computer manufacturer by rejecting the Microsoft/Computer Manufacturer's (in this case it was Dell) End User License Agreement (EULA).
In short, he chose the new computer he wanted, but didn't turn on the computer when he got it. When you turn on a brand name computer for the first time, you must accept both the Microsoft and the manufacturer's EULA which are both shown to you. He then downloaded Linux Mint from his old computer and burned it onto a CD. Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, which means that there is lots of community support, and Ubuntu has very good out of the box compatibility. Linux Mint also includes support for Adobe Flash, DVD playback, and MP3 playback by default, which makes it a very good Live CD distribution. He ran the Live CD on his new computer to make sure that it runs well and that there aren't any compatibility problems. It turned out that there were a few problems, but a simple google search helped him solve the issue.
He sent off an email to Dell mentioning that he does not agree with the Dell and Microsoft Agreements. After an exchange of about 12 emails, he managed to get a refund of about $110 USD (£70). After receiving the money from Dell, he donated it to the Linux Mint project.
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