Re: [PLUG] Interesting thread on SEUL-EDU mailing list...

[LeRoy Cressy <leroy@lrcressy.com>]

I just finished reading this off topic thread with talk about the gold
standard, and end user license agreements, which the thread is about
anyway.  Bill pointed out the M$ web page
http://www.microsoft.com/education/?id=DonatedComputers that contains
the following:

Why should a donor include	It is a legal requirement that 
the operating system with	pre-installed operating systems 
their PC donation?		remain with a machine for the 
				life of the machine. If a 
				company or individual donates 
				a machine to your school, it 
				must be donated with the 
				operating system that was 
				installed on the PC.
 
Through out the thread I did not see one comment about M$ views the
purchase of a computer.  Are they trying to tell me that it is illegal
to put Linux on a computer that I bought and that the awful Windows OS
must stay with that system forever?  With this attitude any business
that purcahses M$ pre installed systems deserve to have themselves
hauled into court by the evil empire!  Any manager that even agrees to
such an agreement is doing his company great harm and damage.

This one item from M$ own web site is our key to promote Linux, or BSD
to our clients.  The damage caused by the BSA should be enough for a
business to tremble just by remote implication of a disgruntled employee
complaint.  Using a free OS and software can protect a business from any
frivilous lawsuit from M$.  

Another member posted  a link to
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/07/10/microsoft_school/ which
describes the anguish that the Philadelphia schools had to go through
because of M$ and the BSA.  It is now time to point out these problems
to the management of the corporations that we are doing business with
along with the question could they afford to be attacked by M$.  Does
the business have the resources to sustain a long protracted law suit
that using propritary software could bring them?  Would they still be in
business if attacked by the BSA?  How rich would their lawyers become
defending them?

This is what makes Linux such a great resource by protecting the
business from harassment.  Microsoft is in the position to acquire any
industry that they think is using illegal copies of their software. 
Also they will get richer every time a company chooses to settle instead
going through the cost of a law suit.

With all of this information available it would be prudent for a
business to switch to the free software that is available to them.  Then
they would be protecting themselves from the BSA and Microsoft.




-- 
Rev. LeRoy D. Cressy   mailto:leroy@lrcressy.com   /\_/\
                       http://lrcressy.com        ( o.o )
                       Phone:  215-535-4037        > ^ <

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: 
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)

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