PledgeBank United States
I’ll do it, but only if you’ll help

Pledge “boycottvista”

"I will not purchase any computing equipment from manufactures that recommend Windows Vista™ or any other Microsoft® products but only if 100,000 potential computer buyers around the world will do the same."

— Ottavio Caruso (contact)

Deadline to sign up by: 31^st December 2008
165 people signed up, 99835 more were needed

More details
A computer with Microsoft® Windows Vista™ preinstalled is a locked computer, which will only run Microsoft-approved applications and media files.

Windows Vista™ is the ultimate vendor lock-in. You will spend tons of money but you will not be free to do what you want with it.

Avoid computers with Microsoft® Windows preinstalled; avoid buying from high-street retailers. If you have the skills, build the computer yourself.

Comments on this pledge

• Allthough i lack final proof for the statement about the restrictions on the user, from experience and from what the producer makes possible with the integration of DRM in the Kernel, i can't support anyone who recommends this product to the less informed end user.
  That legitimates this promise for me.
  Stefan Nolde, 2 years ago. Abusive? Report it!
• The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has
  launched BadVista.org, a campaign with a twofold mission of exposing the harms
  inflicted on computer users by the new Microsoft Windows Vista and promoting
  free software alternatives that respect users' security and privacy rights.
  http://badvista.fsf.org/
  Ottavio Caruso, 2 years ago. Abusive? Report it!
• Vista suxx, my linux box is much better in all ways. Besides, all manufacturers which sell pc's in my region, sell it with preinstalled pirated version of windows :)
  Lester, 2 years ago. Abusive? Report it!
• Any piece of s...oftware produced by Microsoft is worse than it's previous version. Surely Vista will be last of Microsoft's OSes because nothing can be worse than it.
  bugmaker, 2 years ago. Abusive? Report it!
• A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection
  http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pu...
  
  Key facts:
  - Disabling of Functionality
  - Decreased Playback Quality
  - Elimination of Open-source Hardware Support
  - Denial-of-Service via Driver Revocation
  - Decreased System Reliability
  - Increased Hardware Costs
  - Increased Cost due to Requirement to License Unnecessary Third-party IP
  - Unnecessary CPU Resource Consumption
  Ottavio Caruso, 2 years ago. Abusive? Report it!
• I refused Windworms XP in the
  past and refuse Vista now. YES.
  I prefer free and open source DOS'es.
  Yes, DOS IS a serious OS, while
  Vista is a crap.
  Osama Bin Laden, 2 years ago. Abusive? Report it!
• They use windows at work as a networked system. I kid you not they must reboot the server weekly. At home I tried to reinstall XP it will not install several updates including a new version of explorer. This is the last straw, I killed XP and installed linux mint 2.0. No more DRM or other restrictions.
  William D. Whitfield, 2 years ago. Abusive? Report it!
• Community Linux has an interesting article on how to get a Windows refund.
  
  http://community.linux.com/print.pl?sid=...
  Ottavio Caruso, 2 years ago. Abusive? Report it!
• Actually, I would recommend dual booting as to removing Windows. The main reason is that Wine is not good enough yet. WHen it is, I will gladly uninstall Windows.
  qinjuehang, 16 months ago. Abusive? Report it!
• GNU/Linux is the best Operating System in the world! Free, Fully customizable, Open and LIGHT!
  hawake, 12 months ago. Abusive? Report it!
• I have installed a dual boot with Windows Vista and FreeBSD, installing FreeBSD, with XP this went without issue but after SP1 FreeBSD would work obviously but Windows Vista SP1 would just loop and not boot, I removed it and made my workstation a dedicated FreeBSD with VirtualPC and Linux for other things.
  Chris, 12 months ago. Abusive? Report it!