[Lias] Latest Microsoft Stupidity

[Andrew Dorrell]

Les Bell wrote:

> 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
>


This is an exercise in FUD as far as I can see.  In particular you can 
note the internal inconsistency:

On the on hand:
" It is a legal requirement that pre-installed operating systems remain 
with a machine for the life of the machine"

and yet:
"Yes... You can upgrade [the operating system] via Microsoft Academic 
Licensing Programs"

and the standard MS tech support response:
"Format your C drive and re-install the OS" :-)

Some donors may have installed upgrades that have not been specifically 
purchased prior to redistribution / donation.  This is clearly illegal. 
  However, the NSW government schools at least have very broad licence 
terms on MS operating systems.  So long as the schools version is 
installed during upgrade I cannot see any problem anyway.  There would 
seem to be even less problem if the operating system is replaced with a 
free one.

(Selling this type of license seems to be the _real_ motivation for this 
page: "If your school has a Campus Agreement Subscription or a School 
Agreement Subscription , and you receive a donated computer with a 
properly licensed operating system, it's automatically covered by your 
agreement. That means you can install the Campus or School Agreement 
software on the donated computer at no extra cost.")

Keep installing linux :-)  Openoffice is looking better all the time,

koffice is also improving, the new version of KDE (3.0 - soon to be

released) apparently comes with a number of extra utility programs

including a typing tutor, mozilla is now impressively stable, etc....

but don't forget that the largest range of educational sw still

requires the MS underbelly.  And here I don't believe wine provides an

alternative.


-- 
Andrew Dorrell PhD.