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We don't need degrees in Socio-Molecular Economics to recognize poppycock when we see it. Microsoft is simply trying to keep school systems from taking the free PCs that come their way and installing Linux on them.
  technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

Microsoft: Schools have to pay a Windows license for all computers, even Macs


May 22, 2002, 2002


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2002, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2002, The Post-Standard

   People who don't know me well sometimes accuse me of picking on Microsoft. I look at my role a different way. I think the press needs to tell you what's going on.
   If I were to ignore what Microsoft is doing, I'd be cheating you. You need to know the facts.
   I say this despite a widespread public misunderstanding of what Microsoft is. A lot of people assume that Microsoft, the company that created the Windows monopoly, is basically a big (or maybe very big) American success story. A lot of folks apparently think Microsoft gets bad press because it's just plain big. Or because it's just plain powerful.
   Besides (so goes the argument from many people ñ I've heard it hundreds of times), what's wrong with being No. 1? We shouldn't jump on Microsoft just because it's big ñ right?
   In fact, we should watch Microsoft very carefully. Microsoft's own actions tell us why. We've already seen how Microsoft has tried to monopolize Internet Web browsing. That became clear in the federal verdict that found Microsoft guilty of a criminal monopoly.
   We're all naive in one way or another, so we can be excused if we fall prey to a natural tendency to expect Microsoft to behave better now that it's been pronounced guilty.
   But let us not be fooled so easily.
   Take a look at this. If somebody gives you an old PC, you can wipe the hard drive clean and install a different operating system ñ right? No, not according to Microsoft. On a Web site Microsoft set up to "help" public schools deal with donated PCs, Microsoft told school districts they had to keep using Windows on donated PCs.
   Here's what Microsoft told school administrators:
   "It is a legal requirement that pre-installed operating systems remain with a machine for the life of the machine."
   Of course, you and I know that's nonsense. We don't need degrees in Socio-Molecular Economics to recognize poppycock when we see it. Microsoft is simply trying to keep school systems from taking the free PCs that come their way and installing Linux on them. The fact that it had to do it this way is sad.
   (Update: After I wrote to Microsoft asking about this amazing policy statement, Microsoft changed the statements on its Web site. (I doubt that Microsoft did this because I was so quizzical. Many others in the press probably asked about this, too.) But the changes didn't clear up the main oddity -- the fact that Microsoft is claiming that the PC's hardware somehow needs to be a Windows computer in order to count for anything.
   Here's an except from the current site (www.microsoft.com/education/?id=DonatedComputers), as of May 20, 2002. This is directed to school officials:
   "The following should be included with the donation of the PC: All copies of the software on original disk or CD, including back-up and/or recovery materials; manuals and printed materials; end-User License Agreement Certificate(s) of Authenticity. Microsoft recommends that educational institutions only accept computer donations that are accompanied by proper operating system documentation. If the donor cannot provide this documentation, it is recommended that you decline the donated PC(s)."
   What legal ground Microsoft thinks it has for such a policy isn't clear. No one has yet been able to claim that a personal computer's hardware -- the case, the hard drive, the parts inside and so on -- require a current or previous Windows installation to be "legal," but that is what Microsoft seems to be claiming.
   Here's something even crazier. Read this carefully.
   Microsoft charges schools (your school and the one down the street from me) for their use of Windows software. It makes them pay for a license to use the software. It should be based on the number of Windows PCs used at the school. Right?
   Not quite. Get a new plan, Stan.
   Microsoft actually computes the licensing fee based on how many computers of all kinds the school has. In other words, if your school has 10 PCs and 90 Apple Macintoshes, Microsoft says it will charge your school for 100 computers. In what the company calls its "Microsoft Schools Agreement 3.0," Microsoft says schools must compute their license costs based on "100 per cent of all Pentiums, Power Macs, iMacs or better."
   Here is your brain, and there is your brain on Windows. Don't schools have lawyers? Let's give them something to do.