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How Microsoft Inadvertently Helps To Fund FOSS

Posted by kdawson on Thu Oct 11, 2007 10:16 AM
from the i-has-ur-monies-kthxbye dept.
Microsoft Software Linux
christian.einfeldt writes "The State of California sued Microsoft for anti-trust violations, and now the proceeds of the settlement of that case are being used to fund the acquisition of computers for any school district in California. The terms of the settlement allow every school district in California to be reimbursed a set dollar amount for the purchase of computers with the software of their choice. Microsoft probably anticipated that school districts would mainly use the settlement to buy more Microsoft products, with a few Apple purchases sprinkled in here and there. But now that Free Open Source Software is being commercialized by hardware vendors such as Dell, System76, EmperorLinux, Zareason.com, and TechCollective.com, acquiring computers powered by FOSS is straightforward. I'm a volunteer sysadmin at a northern California public charter school and in my Slashdot journal I detail the step-by-step process for using Microsoft's money to pay for the Linux purchases of your school's choice." And then there's the Ubuntu team in Belgium that is raising funds by auctioning off a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate that a Microsoft rep gave them at a trade show. So far the bidding is up to 101.76 Euros, about $144.
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Submission: Microsoft settlement funds free FOSS computers by christian.einfeldt (874074)
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  • And then there's the Ubuntu team in Belgium that is raising funds by auctioning off a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate that a Microsoft rep gave them at a trade show.

    This is exactly why Linux will never gain mainstream acceptance... Shitty marketing. Instead of doing something cool with it, and making a big PR stunt out of it.. (i.e., blow up your Windows disks.. that worked pretty well at the "blow up your disco records" event..) they're... auctioning it. Good job, guys.

    • Re:Wow. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Sumadartson (965043) on Thursday October 11 2007, @10:27AM (#20940635)
      IANAE (I am not an economist)

      Actually, I really like the initiative. If done properly (that's a big if), the auctioned price could give an indication what people perceive the value of Vista to be. My guess is that it will be significantly lower than the price Microsoft set for is. Which, in itself, is an indication of the market power of MS.

      • Re:Wow. (Score:4, Insightful)

        by jimstapleton (999106) on Thursday October 11 2007, @10:30AM (#20940695) Journal
        Conversely, the though of supporting FOSS could artificially inflate the price, MS could ignore that fact, and could argue that people percieve Windows to be worth more than they are charging.

        Double-edged-sword, that.
        • Or.. most likely.. the auction will come and go with little fanfare, and a handful of snarky Ubuntu users will get a good laugh, but that's about it.
  • If they knowing sell on something with known defects (that copy of MS Vista) and it screws up someone's machine -- would they not be liable for any loss that they endured ?

    • Re:Ubuntu team in danger of liability action ... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Entropius (188861) on Thursday October 11 2007, @10:25AM (#20940593)
      I imagine they'll send the guy a complimentary (or should that be "complementary"? ;)) (K)Ubuntu disk in the mail, with the instruction "You'd probably be better off using this instead, but here's the Vista disk you bought."

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Bert64 (520050)
      Were that the case, microsoft would have been bankrupted many years ago.

    • Re:Ubuntu team in danger of liability action ... (Score:5, Funny)

      by jkrise (535370) on Thursday October 11 2007, @10:51AM (#20941015) Journal
      If they(Canonical) knowing sell on something with known defects (that copy of MS Vista)...

      I imagine the support call to go something like this:

      Vista User: Hi! I got a problem with Vista.
      MS rep: Only one?
      VU: Yep.. I can't activate
      MS: Where did you get it? Or is it pirated?
      VU: I bought it from Ubuntu
      MS: Those guys haven't paid us protection money... like the good folks at Novell, Xandros..
      VU: But it is still Microsoft Vista on the package... It's got this shticker as well... can I have a license key?
      MS: Okay here you go... 54524524087698032413243064087513243404353040453204753047340873453207.
      VU: I didn't ask for Ballmer's bank balance; just a license key!
      MS: That's what I gave you...
      VU: Okay... I typed it all in.. still won't go forward...
      MS: Okay do this. Put that number in Excel 2007 and divide it by 345.43521; enter the first 128 digits, and then.. .hello? you still there????
      VU: ..................
      MS: Status: Waiting for customer. Next call please!

  • I wonder (Score:3, Funny)

    by Billosaur (927319) * <`wgrother' `at' `optonline.net'> on Thursday October 11 2007, @10:25AM (#20940581) Journal

    Do you think there are people at Microsoft who go home and secretly work Linux by night?

  • ...now that Free Open Source Software is being commercialized by hardware vendors such as Dell, System76, EmperorLinux, Zareason.com, and TechCollective.com, acquiring computers powered by FOSS is straightforward...


    Isn't that conflicting with the definition of "FOSS?"
    • Of course not. No one said the hardware would be free.
    • Software by itself doesn't do anything, it needs hardware, training, support, etc to be a complete system. Teachers should be good at teaching, not being computer geeks.

      FOSS unlocks the software piece of the system, but the rest is still needed.
      • While that's a good point, is it a guarantee that Dell isn't charging anything for the FOSS being on the system? Dell may claim that they're not charging for the FOSS itself, but for the time it took to get that software set up when it shipped the PC (or something to that effect), but how do we as consumers know that they aren't ripping people off?

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by jhines (82154)
          The lines on the finances can be drawn anywhere, but to stay in business a company has to earn a little profit. Are they marking up Linux, or their services, the hardware, or?

          What is key here is that companies have noticed they can make a profit off of FOSS, rather than being forced to suckle at MS's teat. This isn't bad for FOSS.

          The business (and educational) world wants computers and software that just work.

  • using Microsoft's money (Score:5, Informative)

    by muuh-gnu (894733) on Thursday October 11 2007, @10:27AM (#20940633)
    > using Microsoft's money to pay for the Linux purchases of your school's choice.

    This isnt Microsofts money. This is the money Microsoft extorted from you and is now being forced to give back a tiny amount of this. Any cent that is not going to Microsoft (or even worse, to Apple), but to someone distributing Free Software is great, though.

    • Even worse? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by jgs (245596)
      Why is Apple "even worse"? Just curious -- Apple has various unappealing qualities but unlike Microsoft they don't have a monopoly which they've been found guilty of abusing to extort money from you. "Even worse" would seem to be a pretty high bar.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Machtyn (759119)
        Perhaps, it is because HAD Apple gained the marketshare that Microsoft did, not only would we have closed software, we would also have closed hardware.

        While Apple certainly has an extremely creative group of engineers, would we have as much choice and innovation as we do now for hardware if 80+% of the market went with Apple? I think not. This is where the "even worse" comes in, it is in the possibility of what might have happened.

        /Won't somebody please think of the games?!

      • Why is Apple "even worse"?
        Like the grandparent poster said, this is money extorted from you. It doesn't belong to Apple, thus it can't be stolen from Apple when we redistributed it to the rightful owner, FOSS.

        How the money got into your hands, or why you thought you had a right to decide how to spend that money, is beyond the scope of this thread :-)
    • This isnt Microsofts money. This is the money Microsoft extorted from you ....

      Well said!! I wish more people realise this simple fact; and the amount of clout money can bring.

      Still, it would appear that a hatred of Microsoft; and the idea of subvreting the business of an 800lb. gorilla appeals to some people. Personally I wish people use Linux because they LOVE its Unix-like architecture, and the the freedom offered by the GPL; not because they HATE Bill Gates, Ballmer or Microsoft. The latter is a transien

  • Cool! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Penguinisto (415985) on Thursday October 11 2007, @10:29AM (#20940663) Journal
    I like the fact that schools are (finally!) looking at Linux as a viable OS for the classroom. Seriously, we've come a long way - I remember trying to get it introduced as curriculum in 2000 at the college I taught at, and it took a metric ton of tooth-pulling to get done.

    I've seen (at least in Utah when I lived there) schools transitioning from NetWare servers to Linux-based ones, but the classroom pretty much was all Windows, all the time.

    Now when will we see OpenOffice being taught in the High School and collegiate business courses, instead of you-know-who?

    /P

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ExE122 (954104) *
      I come from a nerdy IT college that was almost exclusively Linux. However I've worked on setting up labs with a friend of mine at another college down the road, and they insisted on being exclusively Windows. Their argument was that Windows was more "user friendly".

      I think the problem is that most schools don't realize that running Linux doesn't mean you have to learn how to write bash scripts, develop C code, and use vi to edit documents (even though regex editing pwns).

      I think Linux vendors just n

      • I wish... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by mpapet (761907)
        ... they insisted on being exclusively Windows... I think Linux vendors just need to do a better job of marketing themselves

        This is the equivalent of the Photoshop/GIMP discussion that's endlessly recycled on /. "If only GIMP had feature X...." Well bad news, even when GIMP gets feature X, they'll have a new reason for not switching.

        In both cases they are so single-minded they happily accept all of the limitations/expenses they bring upon themselves. Trying to convince them otherwise is a steep, nasty,

      • I've been on Ubuntu Linux for about 3 months, and had dabbled in it many, many years ago. I'm an XP user both at work and at home, and I'm not a techie.

        I was absolutely stunned at how much easier Ubuntu was to use, than Linux. Cleaner desktop and with Expose from Compiz it is a wonder. The only thing is that while you can use it, you need further learning curve if you want to get in any deeper (like where files are, etc).

        Tell your non-nerdy colleague to try a Ubuntu Live disk (probably Mandriva, SLED a

      • I come from a nerdy IT college that was almost exclusively Linux. However I've worked on setting up labs with a friend of mine at another college down the road, and they insisted on being exclusively Windows. Their argument was that Windows was more "user friendly".

        I rather think that users and observers commonly mistake "user-friendly" to be "a familiar type and amount of pain". Windows is less easy to use than it is familiar, and remembering the pain it took to gain that familiarity many users will shy from diving into something new fearing what new pain to unveil from a different system.

  • But they own linux (Score:5, Funny)

    by neokushan (932374) on Thursday October 11 2007, @10:29AM (#20940681)
    But Microsoft owns all of the copyrights for Linux anyway, according to Ballmer, remember?

  • Libraries can do this too... (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 11 2007, @10:37AM (#20940805)
    with the Gates Foundation grants. Unless the process has changed since the last time my organization went through it, it's possible to spec out alternate equipment and software instead of accepting the "recommended" equipment. That, and if you have funds remaining after your purchase, you can buy more equipment, so long as it's for public computing. I funded a LTSP-based thin client server that way...
  • Not to sound like a dick but this sounds pretty anecdotal. I'd be willing to bet 90%+ will still be going right back to Microsoft.
    • Well, there's a third option. How about using the money to get new hardware and transfer the existing licenses? I'm fairly sure a good deal of schools will go for that.
  • "Microsoft probably anticipated that school districts would mainly use the settlement to buy more Microsoft products, with a few Apple purchases sprinkled in here and there." That's a pretty big "who cares" isn't it? Whatever Microsoft thought the fine would be used for doesn't make a bean of difference. The true irony would have been if the money WAS really being used to buy mostly Microsoft products. Then you'd have bamboozled consumers paying --> microsoft paying --> government fines paying -->

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by jimstapleton (999106)
      Look at all the Linux users who buy pre-built machines with Windows, because until recently, they lacked many alternatives short of building their own.

      That's not just Soviet Russia my meme spouting friend.
      • Dammit, the Russkies won!

      • Take it a step further: how about people who work on Linux who have Microsoft in their stock portfolios or as part of the 401 K where they work? Microsoft is funding Linux in myriad ways, even subtle ones.

    • Re:Who exactly do I pay? (Score:5, Informative)

      by speaker of the truth (1112181) on Thursday October 11 2007, @10:27AM (#20940627)
      The fines Microsoft were given are being used to buy computers that have Linux installed on them. Rather simple to understand really.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by bcattwoo (737354)

        The fines Microsoft were given are being used to buy computers that have Linux installed on them. Rather simple to understand really.
        Perhaps I missed it when Dell announced that a portion of every Linux purchase would be donated to the FOSS project of your choice.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by russ1337 (938915)

          MS paid a fine. What the state chooses to use that money for is their own business, and has nothing to do with said fine.
          It seems ridiculous to use the money to buy Microsoft products with the money you took off them, essentially giving them the money back.

          • yes it seems stupid, but that is exactly what Microsoft was expecting to happen.. after all they got away with "rebates" for overcharging in other cases. That doesn't really hurt their market much does it? I think this is still a MINIMUM impact and most are probably going to more Windows PCs.

              • Re:Still not funding (Score:4, Funny)

                by russ1337 (938915) on Thursday October 11 2007, @11:58AM (#20941953)

                Well, at least the smart ones will buy Windows PCs for their students, since that will best prepare them for their future in the monopolistic non-thinking 'customer-is-a-criminal' world they'll going to grow up in, where large corporations dictate all terms, including the fines they receive, and tell you what is good for you whether you like it or not.
                There, I fixed that for you.

        • It's like saying my employer bought me a car, because they paid me for working 40 hours a week, and I then used that money to buy a car.

          When your employer pays you he is basically trading money for the efforts of your labour. So it is more accurate to say you funded the purchase of the car through the efforts of your work.

          If schools use the proceeds of a fine to purchase computers, in my opinion it is fair to say the company who paid the fine funded that purchase. The money the schools received was a wind f

    • For my Linux purchase? How does not paying MS fund FOSS?
      From the title you would think that MS accidentally funded some FOSS project. In reality a small portion of the computers might be purchased without MS software. How this translates to funding FOSS is indeed a mystery.
    • Why would anyone be trying to promote Linux here at Slashdot? Everyone is either converted or never will be.
      • Oh, come on... that's like not talking about God at Church. There's lots more insight for us all to gain, even if we are a bunch of calcified stuck-in-their-ways old farts :-)

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ozmanjusri (601766)
      A hundred bucks or so that would raise wouldn't "fund" anything more than a catered lunch, if that.

      Are you insane?

      Do you know how many copies of Ubuntu that'd buy you?

    • What? Can someone translate that for me?

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by jmac1492 (1036880)
        In Slashdot form, here's a (bad) car analogy translation: Say your computer is like a car. Just like your car needs gas to do anything useful, your computer needs an operating system to do anything useful. What Microsoft did was pretty much muscling all the gas stations out of town so they could jack up the price, which is illegal. California made them give some of the money back. What this is is basically taking the money Microsoft is giving you as their fine, and using it to buy Linux gasoline.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by fm6 (162816)
        Your graduate studies and my own unschooled intuitions and prejudices seem to have led us both to the same place: an impatience with people who don't grasp the difference between "education" and "training". The one gives you general mental skills that serve you in a variety of situations; the other just teaches you how to perform various tasks. Education is always useful, even in situations you haven't specifically prepared for; training is just useful for the specific situation.

        I know a lot of people are c

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