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Microsoft Promotions Turn Up in USPS Offices
Several readers, like this Anonymous Coward, have written with links to a letter from Cliff Crouch on macintouch.com. "I stumbled across this letter submitted to a web site I frequent. Apparently Microsoft has promotional displays with free WindowsXP promotional software in U.S. Post Offices."
For better or worse, the US government is large. In fact, it is HUGE. It would be impossible for every decision to be internally consistent in any organziation this size. This is why you always see those exposes on ABC and the like saying Branch A of govt does this and that while Branch B seems to be doing someething flying in the face of it. Its not necessarily that the govt. are hypocrites, all it is is a aggregate of people like you and I. So in this case, its not really the worst thing in the world. And what happend to "innocent until proven guilty"?
Here in Australia, anyone can stick things in post offices if they pay for it. There are all sorts of brochures and things, plus most of the larger ISPs and phone companies have free samplers and recharge kits there.
I assume Microsoft's deal isn't an exclusive arrangement?
The US Post Office is a semi-private agency. It's entirely self funded, but there is congressional oversight.
The Post Office, due to poor management, is running a _BILLION_ dollar deficit right now. So it's no surprise to me that the USPS is looking for other sources of funding. Basically, it's either this, raise the price of stamps (something they proposed to Congress and they got slapped down for), or a hefty government bailout at taxpayer expense.
"You get what you pay for after all." --
I hate M$ same as everybody else but who cares? They paid some dough and the post office put up a display. Anybody could do it if they had the money.
The Post Office isn't some holy place, it's barely connected with the government, and hasn't received any tax dollars since Nixon. It's basically a private organization.
When you see Windows product placement in, say, a courtroom, that's when I'd start to worry....
We should double the cost of bulk-rate advertisements, rather than giving them a cut-rate. Why subsidize mail that no one wants?
Just the disks I have on hand... I'll make 10 copies of Red Hat, 10 copies of Mandrake, 10 copies of Suse, trek on down to the post office tomorrow and stuff them in the Microsoft ad. I encourage everyone to do the same :)
Maybe scribble a sign overhead and tape it to the MS ad. "...Or use Linux!"
Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Wile E. Coyote. They're all there. They've done that for years.
I've seen American Express application forms at the Post Office for as long as I can remember.
I really don't see much wrong with this.
Regardless of your opinions of Microsoft, it's advertising. AOL has done the same for years, leaving their CDs or floppy disks everywhere imaginable.
So MS puts posters in CDs into a USPS office? Big deal. It's not like you can argue that the USPS is a government office and the government is promoting it, the USPS is a government-contracted company, just look it up in your history book.
If the USPS agrees to hang the signs, then they're there. Personally, either someone will or won't upgrade, and a nifty poster in a post office won't influence too many people, and certainly not the type who would use Linux.
Call me a troll for not flaming Microsoft, but it's just marketing, not monopolistic business tactics. And hell, maybe the cost of postage will go down with the money that MS gives the USPS for putting the posters.
Gawyn
Freedom of Speech?
The USPS does not get any money from the taxpayers. They have to earn everything themselves. Since 9/11, the USPS has lost Billions of dollars in lost revenue, anthrax hassles, etc. They have to make up the money somewhere! If Micro$oft came to them and offered them a large amount of money to put up such display cases, I'm all for it!
BTW: the USPS does a tremendous job for the amount they charge for the postage. Have you looked at first-class postage rates in Europe?
..unless, of course, you play games, develop software for windows, do video editing, have a consumer-grade webcam, scanner, etc., or are learning to use a computer and will have to know the OS for work. In which case, carry on..
Btw, nowadays Windows surpasses Linux in the desktop scene for three technical reasons:
1) video drivers with a standardized interface to the kernel. The X/Gtk/KDE thing is outdated; we need a more Windowsish approach where we drop files in, set up a few symlinks and it's using those drivers instead. We should not be forced to recompile our kernel or replace X!
2) a graphics SDK that's modern (OpenGL 2.0 and it's standardized pixel and vertex shader calls won't be out for another two or three quarters at least, according to the last meeting of the ARB, which means that without a doubt, DirectX will be the new standard for game development. This is fact. Live with it.)
3) a monolithic kernel.
Number 3's what's holding us back. I predict that once (if) the GNU hurd catches on, we'll start to see some open source developers moving in this direction. Maybe even the X people'll head that way. But until then.. Linux and BSD may be free, but they ain't the best. Sorry.
I agree, the USPS was selling Looney Tunes stamps a couple of years ago, and you can bet that AOL Time-Warner was pulling in some cash from that. There were also tie-ins for The Grinch movie all over our local Post Office, so I don't really see the significance of Microsoft not-so-boldly going where several corporations have gone before...
When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. --Robert A. Heinlein
After working in the shipping business, I learned quickly how the USPS is the government equivalent of Microsoft. Try sending an overnight letter via UPS or Federal Express to a PO Box. It can't be done. Why? Simple: The USPS forces senders to use their mail services.
When you are a business with no competition, you have no reason to improve. IMO, anybody would be crazy to send something of crucial value or importance via any postal service and expect the same service as a private equivalent (UPS/FedEx/Airbourne).
They are a corporate monopoly with government protection. Not to mention, the only government agency I have seen that runs TV ads ("Fly Like An Eagle" crap).
Microsoft is a convicted monopolist that has shown no remorse for its actions, and scarcely acknowledges that it has done any wrong. Ideally, the government would not be helping to pormote this malignancy.
It has been repeated many times throughout this discussion, first that the Post Office is part of the US government, only to have that assertion contradicted to the effect that the Postal Service is actually an independant corporation established and run by the government -- posters have also pointed out that the Federal Government is the sole shareholder, appoints the directors, and as needed bails the service out to the tune of a billion dollars.
All this is missing the point: the government shouldn't be helping spread the monopoly even if the post office is technically independent. The service still answers to Congress, and does arguably more so than most other businesses. This sort of issue is well within the domain of public policy -- even if no policies currently exist that are relevant to this situation.
In a broader sense, corporations in general also answer to Congress (even in cases like Enron where they'd rather not!), and by extension we regulate all of them in numerous ways as well. In comparison to wholly indepenent and totally private corporations it should be easy to shape a public policy in regards to a pseudo-governmental organization like the post office -- even if it means appointing a board of directors who agree that convicted monopolists shouldn't have the privilege of advertising in Postal Service buildings.
This is also why this is a relevant Slashdot story. It involves what amounts to a public policy decision (or lack thereof) that affects technology that the Slashdot community cares about: Microsoft, monopolies, the blurred line between the public and private sector, and public policy regarding these topics.