Grab your unwanted copies of Windows everybody!
Because it's time to march on towards your local Microsoft Office
and demand your money back for this garbage OS that you never wanted in the first place.
At least that’s probably what you would have said if you were a Linux user in 1999.
Because February 15th marked the 23rd anniversary
of Windows Refund Day.
Never heard of it? Well, here’s a little backstory.
For most of its existence, one of the ways you could get a copy of Windows
was by purchasing a new computer that came pre-installed with it.
It was a great business strategy for Microsoft.
And by the time the late 90s rolled around, it was difficult to find a computer that didn’t come with it.
Unless you were a Mac user, of course.
But that didn’t mean everybody who ended up with a copy of Windows actually wanted to use it.
And surprisingly, Microsoft actually prepared for this.
Well, kinda.
In Windows’s License Agreement (you know, that document that nobody reads),
it outlines what you have to do if you reject the terms and conditions of it:
Contact your computer manufacturer and request a refund
for the portion of the computer’s cost that went towards your Windows license.
It was also printed on the back of OEM CD cases.
The only problem was, this rarely happened.
Because the people who actually called up their OEMs usually were met with a wave of confusion.
Which in the end, typically resulted in the suggestion to go talk to Microsoft.
Who would just tell you to go talk to the OEM.
Who would just tell you to go talk to Microsoft-
You see the problem here?
So users of other operating systems who did not intend to use Windows
had essentially no way to get that money back.
Eventually resulting in the events of February 15th, 1999.
A worldwide protest against Microsoft for their inability to facilitate these refunds properly.
the largest demonstration of which occurred in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I made a video back in 2018 covering this in detail.
And now, 4 years later, we’re gonna talk about it some more.
Because ever since I published that video, I have received thousands of comments.
A few of which keep showing up over and over again.
Questions that I happen to have the answers to.
So without any further ado...
This is the Windows Refund Day followup.
Now this is a question I totally understand. I mean after all, when people think of Linux users,
they generally picture somebody who is rather tech savvy. Someone who would probably know what makes
a computer tick, and yes, may be able to build one themselves. But even if that were the case with
everybody here, I think this question overlooks the central issue of what this protest was about.
The Windows license agreement said “this is how you get a refund”. And regardless of
everybody’s technical ability, they could not get something that they were entitled to. It
was all about the principle. Yes, Microsoft had a very easy way to dismiss all of this:
“just read the license agreement”. What they could not easily dismiss though,
was the amount of news coverage that the Bay Area protest got. For the first time,
Microsoft was forced to publicly respond to the issue. And even though nobody left with a refund,
the Linux users there that day still felt a sense of victory. Because the primary goal
of the protest was to raise public awareness to the issue. If everybody instead went “I’m just
gonna build my own PC and not deal with this”, then you probably wouldn’t even
be watching this video. And not to mention, good luck building your own laptop! In fact,
one of the earliest cases of somebody successfully getting a Windows refund was a Linux laptop user.
But this question isn’t the main reason I’m making a follow up. It’s because of something else.
Something that stems from this little line I said near the end of the original video:
"A few people from the group actually tried to enter the Microsoft offices on the 9th floor of the building.
But their efforts were quickly brought to a halt
as they found that the elevator had been reprogrammed to disable access to the 9th floor."
And after hearing that, the comments section reacted with:
Seems like a pretty innocuous question, right? I mean, there’s really nothing wrong with
genuinely wanting to know. It’s just that, most people in the comments genuinely didn’t. Instead,
preferring to leave snarky and accusatory remarks, acting as if the protesters were too stupid to
even think about walking up a few flights of staris. With some even resorting to stereotypes,
and in general just blowing things way out of proportion. Because the answer to this question is
so amazingly simple, that even us "lazy Americans" can figure it out. I already know exactly why this
wouldn’t have worked. But rather than just tell you, I think it would be more fitting
if I show you. A quick Google search pulled up Microsoft’s former office address in Foster City.
And looking at it on Google Street View confirmed that the building matched what we saw in the news
footage. And since I was already in the Bay Area working on my Bliss Documentary,
it only took a 15 minute drive to get there.
I gotta admit, it was pretty cool just to be walking around the parking lot where these
protests occurred. The scene is certainly a sharp contrast compared to what we saw in
the news footage, with me being the only person there. Eventually, I wandered inside and found
my way into one of the stairwells. All that was left to do now is what those Linux users were too
lazy to do themselves, head up 9 flights of stairs and walk right into what would’ve been
Microsoft’s Foster City Office.
Except you can probably tell from my tone of voice that that isn’t going to happen.
And why is that?
THE DOOR IS LOCKED FROM THE OUTSIDE!
I thought this was just common knowledge, but apparently I was wrong.
Or at least, the people leaving these comments just forgot that this was a thing.
In secure office buildings like this, the stairwell doors are usually unable to be
opened from the outside without a key.
Which would typically be in the possession of maintenance or security personnel.
So no matter if you started at the bottom of the stairwell and walked up,
or took the elevator to the 10th floor and walked down a flight like some people suggested,
you were going to be met with the same locked door.
This was all by design.
To prevent unauthorized people from getting in,
while still complying with the law and allowing those inside to quickly leave
in the event of a fire or evacuation drill.
In fact, the door I entered the stairwell through was also locked from the outside,
so I had to go to the ground level to get out.
Trust me, a company like Microsoft who wanted a private and secure office space
wasn’t going to overlook something like this.
There’s no need to blow things out of proportion and use this minuscule anecdote
as the basis for your brilliant social commentary.
All that was really needed to figure this out was
a quick Google search for the various accounts of the protest.
But I guess doing a few seconds of research before making an accusation was too much to ask.
And that sounds kinda…
oh, what’s the word I’m looking for…
Oh yeah!
LAZY!
So with all that aside, it was pretty neat to make my way out here and see the site of this protest in person.
After finding my way out, and almost panicking when I
walked into the wrong parking garage and thought my car had been towed,
I continued on with my adventures that afternoon.
And all I can say is… stay tuned.
One day later, as I was sitting on the plane for the journey back home,
questioning my decision to fly to the other side of the country
to film footage of a locked door.
I remembered that this video is sponsored by Linode!
The wonderful folks who helped make this trip possible.
And if you’re a Linux user, they’re right up your alley.
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If you’d like to do something a bit more advanced,
you can turn to Linode’s community supported guides for step by step instructions
to get your server configured just how you want.
The best part?
If you sign up for an account right now using my link in the description: Linode.com/michaelmjd
you’ll get a free $100 credit that you can use on any of their cloud computing services for 60 days.
That’ll get you 2 months worth of a quad-core Linode with 8GB of RAM and 160GB of SSD storage…
for completely free!
And if you do spend your own money and aren’t satisfied for whatever reason,
Linode makes it much easier than Microsoft to get a refund with their 7-day money back guarantee.
So go ahead and check them out, and huge thanks again to Linode for your continued support of the channel!
And that my friends, brings the Windows Refund Day followup to a close.
I hope you all enjoyed this one. If you did,
be sure to give it a like and get subscribed,
turn on notifications, all that good stuff.
Because I upload new videos every single week on this channel.
For now though, I want to thank you all so much for watching
and as always, I will see you in the next video!