Yes! Yes!! YES!!!

Great news from France just hope other countries can follow suit.

BTW you quote "one of my estemeed countrymen wrote to Asus" .. soo your french?
But you spell Naturellement wrongly...

And to the comments above.. It's not VIVA (which is spanish,italian etc) it's Vive la France.

To those lacking French understanding (Not French)... Please if you refer to French words, use them correctly.

Bundled software doesn't keep the cost down unless the software provider is actually paying to have their software included.

Although I think the discounts for Windows are pretty deep for PC manufacturers, I doubt that they go as far as MS paying to keep their software installed.

I'm kind of hoping that someone challenges the amount of refund they get from returning the Windows licence, and maybe as a result we'll get to see what the manufacturer is actually paying for a Windows licence.

Here in Russia we're less lucky.There is quite few notebooks without Vista and vendors are usually refusing to refund.However quite few people actually willing to use Vista since it's just slow and bloated and has a dozens of compatibility issues.So, you pay 130 euros for nothing and no easy ability to choose other OS.Shall I admit that lots of people is nearly hate MS for doing so?Actually I want Linux notebooks to became so popular that they'll hit russian market as well.And I'm still unable to understand why I should use Vista if I hate it and preferring XP.On desktop such awful MS policy has caused me to try Kubuntu and I'm pretty happy with it, duh :)

All that bundled software is part of what keeps the cost of the PC down. Getting rid of it will make things more expensive.

And so it begins, the fall of the Microsoft Empire at the hands of the FLOSS Rebel Alliance!

Forced bundling should be made illegal everywhere in the world. No one has the right to force you to use a given software product. Certain hardware manufacturers have even threatened not to honor HARDWARE warranties if the software is changed. They will now be singing another tune.

Viva la France!

two points:
it is allowed to bundle software with a PC, but the reseler must give the details of what is sold, and on consumer request re-imburse the unwanted software.
the procedure should be easy and at reduced costs.
At the momment, ressellers do not comply with the law, everybody knows that, even the governement, but nothing is done (except in court...)
Guess why ?

le grenouilles have told Billy Bob Gates to 'op it?

It's been the case in Australia for quite a while that never-booted pre-installed copies of MS Windows can be "returned" for a refund. The original case is http://www.netcraft.com.au/geoffrey/toshiba.html.
Sadly, it's pretty rare.

That it took so long to finally get a court case about this in favor of the customer.

I usually don't like anything from France but I actually finding myself agreeing with their law and decision on this one. It makes sense.

NaturEllement : E, not A.