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Microsoft Ties $235m IT Aid To Use of Windows
Posted by
Zonk
on Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:01 PM
from the developing-countries-just-the-way-you-want-them dept.
from the developing-countries-just-the-way-you-want-them dept.
E5Rebel writes "Microsoft will spend $235m in schools worldwide over the next five years, part of a plan to
triple the number of students and teachers trained in its software programs to up to 270 million by 2013. 'Microsoft's investment shows how important it views developing markets to its future business. Last year, Microsoft introduced the Student Innovation Suite, which includes the XP Starter Edition plus educational applications, for $3 for qualifying countries. Microsoft faces heated competition from companies supporting the open-source OS Linux and associated software in developing countries. "I think as a company we welcome choice," [Orlando Ayala] said. "Frankly, we welcome the competition." The company's educational funding comes with a hitch: "Of course, that includes the fact they [the schools] use Windows," Ayala said.' If you don't use Windows you don't get the cash." Microsoft has long been interested in the education of children.
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Microsoft Would Settle For The Children 780 comments
The news from MSNBC
is that Microsoft wants to, er, settle for the children. Take that
whichever way you want. They propose to settle civil anti-trust cases (not the DoJ suit) with a $1.1 billion (retail value) spanking (they
have $36 billion in the bank), consisting of free computer goodies to our nation's poorest schools (the first hit's free, kids). I'm sure Microsoft will upgrade those old computers to keep them current, in perpetuity, for free, out of the kindness of their hearts, but in an apparent oversight that was left out of the news report. Of that $1.1 billion, $0.9 billion will be software presumably valued at whatever Microsoft wants to charge (see "monopoly"). For hardware and (laughable) training/support costs, Microsoft will be docked three weeks' worth of interest on their cashpile; they will seek matching funds for the remainder, I am not making this up. Some lawyers opposed this but "concluded that Microsoft's monopoly already is so pervasive that students would have to learn to use these products anyway in the workplace." Update: 11/20 21:22 GMT by M : Heh. Red Hat offers an alternative to Microsoft's settlement proposal - you provide hardware, we'll provide software.
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Of course they welcome competition... (Score:5, Funny)
it's where they get all their best ideas!
(calm down modders - it's just a joke)
Actually... (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
i say if as I don't know apple's eduction history.
Re:Actually... (Score:5, Informative)
IMHO, these platform wars has no place at schools. Students who work for a computer degree should understand computer basics and a little bit of each major platform. Then they can specialize in a platform they are interested in. It's still called computer science and computer engineering, isn't it? Not Windows science and Windows engineering. If students aren't interested in the basics and the other platforms, they can just go to a vocational school specializing in Windows softwares. There is no need to waste time with other stuff.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If it's the case that a school can take this money to provide some Windows machines and still provide other OS machines normally at their expense, I can't see how this would be anything but good for the students. If it's an exclusive deal, I'd agree with you that that really isn't good for the students, unless the school is so poor that this is the only way they're g
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Re:Actually... (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Actually... (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
doubletake (Score:3, Funny)
It has to be said (Score:3, Informative)
Subsidy not aid (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a blatant case of a monopoly subsidising to establish itself in emerging markets.
The NYT has a page that is still up [nytimes.com]
Re:Subsidy not aid (Score:5, Insightful)
I would like to see more competition in the consumer OS market as well and MS may have crossed the line in the past, but screaming "monopoly abuse!" every time MS makes any kind of business deal is just silly.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem here is that I don't pay taxes to fund public schools so Microsoft can go advertise their products. Enhancing vendor lock through targeting public institutions is not cool with me. OTOH, maybe open-source advocates should just offer free training and resources of their own.
Withholding judgment...
Re:Subsidy not aid (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
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When I was at school we were trained on Acorns (as was pretty much everyone in the UK at the time). Certainly not what is used in industry. I'm not convinced this caused harm - if anything I think it helped develop the skills needed to use *any* system rather than just learning MS software by rote.
In any case, whether you teach kids MS Office or OpenOffice when they are at school, by the time
Re:Subsidy not aid (Score:4, Insightful)
Cheers.
Parent
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This isn't "free training" - Microsoft are trying to shape the existing educational system to push their agenda. IMHO *no* company should be able to influence the direction of general educati
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Re:Subsidy not aid (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Saw This on a Billboard This Weekend (Score:5, Insightful)
How free is something when you're told what to spend it on? How free is money when it goes into a fund that invests in the United States companies and stock markets and you can't control that fund?
My answer would be 'not very' but, you know, when you see these 'donations' from the rich like Bill Gates, that seems to be the case every single time. I'm glad they're getting something, I'm upset about the strings attached. Better than nothing, yes. But sounding more and more like a fishy tax loophole or legacy purchase (he'll go down in history as a philanthropist no doubt) every day.
Free software is not money (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
What's very funny is Microsoft had a 10 question quiz in an ad here on slashdot. The quiz was to "test your knowledge of software licensing". For grins, I took the test. It will not let you go got the next question (training maze) until you got the current question correct. If they just scored it, I would have done poorly as I chose what a consumer friendly answer should be. Taking the quiz fully convinced me that with GNU style licenses out there,
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
It doesn't cost Ubuntu anything (in practical terms) to do that. It does cost Microsoft to do that. Microsoft pays people to work for them. Time absolutely is money.
It absolutely does cost Ubuntu/Canonical, and in very practical terms. The entity controlling the distribution *does* spend money to pay some staff to make it all go, from development to marketing to professionally producing install/live cds to hosting and administration of their central repositories, forums, etc. The "time is money" argumen
Links that work (Score:2)
Here's the story, Yahoo! [yahoo.com]
Maybe it's not cash? (Score:3, Insightful)
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Re:Maybe it's not cash? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Of course they only pay for windows training (Score:5, Interesting)
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I mean, what non-zealot could even half take the premise of this article/editorial seriously?
Re: (Score:2)
Why is it a surprise they would only fund free training for their own software? I mean isn't that kind of a duh thing? Are Linux companies sinister too now because they don't pay for free windows training for people who don't buy Linux?
It's no surprise. The disappointment is the requirements.
From TFA:
"Of course, that includes the fact they [the schools] use Windows," Ayala said.' If you don't use Windows you don't get the cash."
It doesn't matter what the intentions are.
That makes so much sense to me. It wouldn't be logical for Microsoft or any company to donate money for their competition (i.e. donate money for computers to run competing software). I would not suspect anything else from a for-profit company. I'm sure Microsoft's shareholders would agree. Nothing new in this news.
And this is a shock why? (Score:3, Insightful)
This isn't some foundation it is a company. Sorry but this isn't shocking or news. Do you think Novell or Redhat would donate money to schools that teach Windows?
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They can't have it both ways.
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In other news... (Score:2)
It gets dark at night.
You were expecting them to buy Macs? (Score:5, Funny)
Open Source forces... (Score:4, Interesting)
Which means they would have to increase prices for their software, which makes more people decide to use the free open source alternatives instead.
I just love it when a plan comes together.
muhahahahaha!!!
I am willing to donate 6 trillion! (Score:5, Interesting)
On a more serious level, I could donate $1,000,000 to schools that could only be used to buy licenses of my slightly modified Ubuntu clone and never have to spend money - if they don't buy my licenses, they don't get the money; if they do buy my Ubuntu clone, I get the money back and maybe have to eat the cost of some CD-Rs.
"Donating" money that can only be used to purchase an intangible good (and software, other than the physical media, is intangible) from yourself is like donating nothing - especially when you're donating to people who wouldn't buy your product if it weren't being given to them.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Can't hate 'em... (Score:2)
I don't care for M$ either (while typing this on a M$ platform, necessary evil..blah,blah,blah), but you have to give them credit for trying to continue growing their cust
Wrong! (Score:4, Interesting)
Microsoft isn't confronting competition in these targeted regions, they're confronting rampant piracy of their OS. They figure it's better to get $3.00 per copy than nothing.
Isn't this illegal? (Score:5, Insightful)
With the cost of Windows as it is, "giving" software to schools along with a condition that they must be using Windows is about as predatory as you can get. What's the EU's phone number again?
Microsoft is Evil (surprise!) (Score:3, Insightful)
The "training" microsoft is talking about is their typical "training" where general concepts and understanding is not part of the instructional course except where necessary to use their product. If you have ever taken any Microsoft training courses you'll know what I'm talking about. A networking class is not about networking, but about "their" networking tools.
I have taken a couple Microsoft courses for various reasons, and have always come away saying (1) that was a huge waste of time. (2) It was like a big commercial for Microsoft products. (3) It was useless in any practical sense.
Now, all these nicely trained people aren't going to be looking at the cost-saving alternatives like OpenOffice and/or Linux, nope, they'll be revved up to buy MS Office and Windows (because that's what they were trained on!)
My Advice, when Microsoft offers you anything for free, turn it down, because it will always end up costing you.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course it was, but when a small marginal player does something "evil," it's impact is mitigated by its ability to capitalize on it. When a convicted monopolist does something evil, everyone suffers.
The end of the article is far more interesting (Score:3, Insightful)
Considering MS is already talking about Vista's replacement next year with Windows 7, is anyone else shocked that they are continuing to put development resources into XP?
Should schools turn down this gift? (Score:4, Insightful)
I think schools should turn this msft "gift" down. There is nothing that msft is offering, that does not have a free alternative.
I am sure a lot of people will label me a linux zealot. But the truth is, I completely understand that linux is not for everybody. But schools are a different matter. Schools should teach vendor-neutral concepts. Students should not be taught that vendor specific jargon and standards are somehow universal. For example, what msft calls a "domain" is different than what is commonly understood. I already notice a lot of students thinking that anything non-msft is non-standard.
Unlike commercial institutions, students do not have the same concerns about the acceptance of vendor specific document formats. For example, some accountants will only accept Intuit formated income statements - so some small businesses have to use Intuit, but students should be able to learn the concepts of accounting, and accounting concepts, without being tied to a specific vendor.
Again, I want to emphasize: students should be taught *concepts* then those concepts can be applied to software from any vendor. Schools should not be in the business of promoting a particular vendor - especially if that vendor does not offer anything that is that freely available anyway.
Sometimes it is very difficult to avoid vendor-lock, but for students, it's easy. So why be vendor locked if you don't have to be?
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You're being pedantic, but you also don't know what the fuck you're talking about. Which is nothing new for this website.
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Unfortunately according to Wikipedia, they are..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Software_Alliance [wikipedia.org] Scroll down to the members list.. Yuck!
" * Adobe Systems
* Apple Inc.
* Autodesk
* Avid Technology
* Bentley Systems
* Borland
* CA, Inc.
* Cadence D