Windows Price Ruling Not Enough, Says French Consumer Group

Quoting:A French electronics retailer must display separately the price of computers and of the software bundled with them, a Paris court ruled Tuesday. It stopped short of ordering the retailer to sell computers without bundled operating system software, however.

The ruling did not satisfy UFC-Que Choisir, the consumer rights group that brought the case, however. It had asked the court to enforce legislation forbidding retailers from making the purchase of one item conditional upon the purchase of another, but the court took no action on that point.

UFC-Que Choisir said it will appeal the decision, fighting for consumers' right to buy a computer and operating system separately, or to choose the software they want when buying a new computer. In practice, the vast majority of PCs sold in France, as elsewhere, come with Windows installed.

The ruling will give little comfort to those wanting to buy a PC on which to run Linux: they will still have to pay for Windows, although they will at least know exactly how much they had to pay for it.