Reasons to Avoid Microsoft

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Education

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• Universities Rush to Protect Networks (Washington Post, 2003.09.04)
  George Mason University administrators, anxious to protect the school's computer network from a raft of viruses and worms plaguing the Internet, today unplugged thousands of students from the network. ... [they] cut Internet access for all 3,600 students living on campus.
  

• Microsoft's big role on campus (MSNBC, 2003.08.25)
  Bearing gifts of cash, software and computers worth $25 million, Microsoft Corp. came to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999, saying it wanted to jointly develop educational technologies. Some scholars expressed more suspicion than gratitude. ... Aeronautical design classes now use Microsoft's Flight Simulator computer program. Electrical engineering and computer science professors are putting their courses online using Microsoft's PowerPoint presentation software. The university's educational computer network is being overhauled to use Microsoft's .Net architecture. Video games, hardly an MIT priority but a strong commercial interest of Microsoft's, have suddenly become a subject of scholarly inquiry.
  

• Colleges Signing Secret MS License Agreements (Slashdot.org, 2002.12.24)
  Microsoft is requiring colleges wanting cheap licenses to keep their license terms secret [...] in direct contravention of state public records and Freedom of Information laws.
  

• The Free Software Revolution - Linux promises to save your district money on software costs. But can you really get something for nothing? (Scholastic Administr@tor, Fall 2002)
  [S]chool technology decision-makers are beginning to worry about the long term: 'How are we going to afford perpetual software upgrades? How can we provide students and staff with reliable tools? How are we going to be able to keep up?' ... [S]chool officials chose to combine Linux with a thin-client solution: Four powerful Linux servers to provide the back-end muscle to drive 100 Linux thin-client computers in computer labs and in classrooms. Without hard drives, floppy drives, CD-ROM drives, or any other moving parts, the thin-client computers cost the district just $472 each to assemble from scratch-and most of that cost was due to the flat-panel monitors.
  

• Schools cry bully over Microsoft licensing fees (ComputerWorld, 2002.Jun.04)
  Microsoft Corp. has earned a failing grade from school districts in Oregon and Washington, where administrators say the company's licensing tactics could force a rapid move to open-source software. ... 'Microsoft keeps saying it cares about education, but they don't have a clue what we're dealing with...'
  

• Compulsory Windows: for Macs, and people without PCs? (The Register, 2002.May.07)
  Microsoft has come up with another novel way to make its software compulsory - an annual subscription licensing system for schools where you have to pay for all of the computers you're using, even if you don't want them to run the Microsoft software you're licensing. This includes Macs... [The] Microsoft UK Campus Agreement [has schools] paying for software for people who don't even have computers.
  

• Fears About Microsoft Return, in Mexico (New York Times, 2002.Apr.24)
  [Legislators] in Mexico City prepared [an] attack against a new agreement by Microsoft and the Mexican government that could drive millions of new Internet users into Microsoft's waiting arms by the end of the year. ... it is the deal with Microsoft that has drawn criticism, because to many it smacks of handing the company a de facto monopoly. ... 'We are going to closely examine the Microsoft deal because it appears a good part of it places conditions that try to promote the use of Microsoft in the public schools and the payment of licenses and royalties'...
  

• Microsoft puts the squeeze on NW schools (Oregon Live, 2002.Apr.21)
  At the busiest time of the year for those districts, Microsoft is demanding that they conduct an internal software audit to 'certify licensing compliance.' In a March letter, the software giant gave Portland Public Schools 60 days to inventory its 25,000 computers. ... Many also consider the audit requirement a strong-arm tactic to push school districts into Microsoft's costly system-wide licensing agreements. 'Given the fact that the letter came from their marketing department, and included a brochure about their school licensing agreement, this didn't seem terribly subtle to any of us'...
  

• Red Hat Proposes to Enhance Microsoft Settlement Offer By Providing Open Source Software to All U.S. School Districts (Yahoo! News, 2001.Nov.20)
  Microsoft had proposed that, in settlement of class-action claims of price-gouging, the company donate computer hardware, software and support to 14,000 poor school districts throughout the United States. Under the proposed settlement, a substantial part of the value provided to schools would be in the form of Microsoft software. ... the Microsoft proposal [...] has a five-year time limit at which point schools would have to pay Microsoft to renew their licenses and upgrade the software... '[We] do not think that the remedy should be a mechanism by which Microsoft can further extend its monopoly,' said Matthew Szulik, CEO of Red Hat.
  

• Microsoft to schools: Give us your lunch money! (Salon.com, 2001.Jul.10)
  Microsoft threatened to sue unless the administrative offices and all 264 schools conducted an audit and proved that every piece of installed Microsoft software had a valid license. ... 'Can anyone expect a dying person to be concerned about the drug companies' profits?' ... the fines for just the MS-DOS [illegal] copies could add up to as much as $19.8 million, not even counting lawyer's fees.
  

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