[Lias] Latest Microsoft Stupidity

[Les Bell]

According to a Slashdot story, Microsoft has published a page which implies
that replacing a copy of Windows on a computer donated to a school is
illegal. See the Slashdot story at
http://slashdot.org/articles/02/04/18/1623240.shtml?tid=109 and the
Microsoft page at http://www.microsoft.com/education/?id=DonatedComputers

Ignoring, for the moment, the incredible arrogance of Microsoft's
assumption that *their* interpretation of the law applies in all
jurisdictions, their statement that "It is a legal requirement that
pre-installed operating systems remain with a machine for the life of the
machine" is not part of any law that I'm aware, except perhaps the
exceedingly fine print of the increasingly restrictive Microsoft EULA. (And
without checking the details, I suspect that attempts by Microsoft to tie
their operating system to a computer may breach the provisions of the Trade
Practices Act.)

The statement appears to be an attempt to scare educators into not
replacing the pre-loaded - and probably registry-rotted - copy of Windows
on the machine with something useful, such as Linux.

Worse still, it appears to contradict previous statements by Microsoft
Australia, which wants to see a new copy of Windows shipped with every
computer "re-birthed" by charities.

A pox on them, say I! I, for one, will be redoubling my efforts to put
Linux everywhere I can in the education system, especially on donated
computers!

Best,

--- Les [http://www.lesbell.com.au]