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[Michael Czeiszperger <czei AT webperformanceinc.com>]

On Tuesday 23 April 2002 01:53 am, you wrote:
> So, I guess on one side, MS is a just a good company with an Accounts
> Receivable issue and some clever marketing people. Nothing wrong with that,
> right?

I wonder how Apple managed to have a large portion of the educational market 
for many years without being perceived as gouging?

> On the other view, MS is a hypocritical near-monopoly that is
> muscling schools (and thus, taxpayers) in order to lock them in to
> long-term contracts in order to keep the competition (Linux) from getting a
> foothold.
>

I don't think MS has to be viewed in moral terms. In the case of public 
schools with government funding, MS has to do the same as any competitor, 
make a case for their ROI. Evaluated rationally and unemotionally, the short 
and long term ROI for putting Linux schools and governments is clear. All 
across the nation, schools and other government entities are going to be 
faced with this fact, and a large portion of them are going to be adopting 
Linux. And they will be doing so not out of politics, but using they same 
criteria they always use to choose IT systems.

-- 
Michael Czeiszperger
czei AT webperformanceinc.com