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How Microsoft Beats GNU/Linux In Schools

twitter writes "Ever wonder why schools still use Windows? Boycott Novell has extracted the details from 2002 Microsoft email presented in the Comes vrs Microsoft case and other leaks. What emerges is Microsoft's desperate battle to 'never lose to Linux.' At stake for Microsoft is more than a billion dollars of annual revenue, vital user conditioning and governmental lock in that excludes competition, and software freedom for the rest of us. Education and Government Incentives [EDGI] and "Microsoft Unlimited Potential" are programs that allows vendors to sell Windows at zero cost. Microsoft's nightmare scenario has already been realized in Indiana and other places. Windows is not really competitive and schools that switch save tens of millions of dollars. Because software is about as expensive as the hardware in these deals, the world could save up to $500 million each year by dumping Microsoft. Now that the cat is out of the bag, it's hard to see what Microsoft can do other than what they did to Peter Quinn."

9 of 476 comments (clear)

  1. Dumping. by Erris · · Score: -1, Troll

    It is dumping if it's targeted against a specific competitor. It's also dumping if it's significantly below your costs. Realizing zero revenue from a deal if it will help you "never lose to Linux" is about as textbook a dump as you can find. Once the dump is over, the price always comes up and you lose the next time because you don't have as many choices - the competitor is gone. GNU/Linux won't go away, so M$ has an endless task ahead of it.

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    DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
    1. Re:Dumping. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      You mean like communist linsux and communist open-sores? Maybe there should be a law against communist open-sores. Then fucktards like you twitter with your multiple personality disorder can commit suicide immediately.

  2. Re:Can anyone explain the link? by Erris · · Score: -1, Troll

    Try here, and here or any of the other fine links here.

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    DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
  3. Re:Or by sexconker · · Score: -1, Troll

    No! M$ is evil! They kill kittens without even captioning them! Bill Gates and Michael Jackson do lines of coke off 5 year-old ass every Tuesday. Information wants to be free! The man is keeping us down! YEAR OF THE LINUX DESKTOP!!!

  4. Re:Product dumping by CarpetShark · · Score: 1, Troll

    Indeed. Linux is a kernel, not a product. The free distros cannot really be argued to compete for government contracts. Moreover, Linux's FOSS development methodology is simply based on the scientific and academic sharing in the academic world it came from. It may not even be right to argue that Linux itself CAN be a competitor, given that. It would be like claiming physics professors who give away their ideas and laser technology demo software are competing with a laser pointer manufacturer.

  5. Re:Product dumping by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    You are an idiot. The WHOLE THREAD, including the comment you originally responded to, is about education, not business. Not that it matters, as your comment was incorrect anyway.

  6. Re:Slashdot's fall from grace. by LingNoi · · Score: 0, Troll

    Not everyone rushed to signup for a low UID. Yes, we're all not that pathetic.

  7. Re:Or ... it could be that MS gives it away! by Daengbo · · Score: 0, Troll

    Since you're a "Linuzzz" troll, we all already know what you think about "Free as in speech."

  8. Re:Or ... it could be that MS gives it away! by Daengbo · · Score: 0, Troll

    Not ignoring anything. Just calling you what you are. You've been doing "Abble" and "Linuzzz" for probably a year now, maybe longer. They're just as lame and childish as "M$" is. That one of the three is in your sig right now says a lot about you.

    You belong in this story with Twitter and his adolescence, though. I'll give you that much.