Microsoft Bends To Norwegian Pressure 117
Martin writes "Microsoft has agreed to change the terms of its school agreement contract with Norwegian regional municipalities, following a complaint by Norwegian open-source software company Linpro to the Norwegian Competition Authority. Microsoft 'introduced two kinds of flexibility in the agreement, that were previously missing,' the head of the company's Norway operations said. One of these 'kinds of flexibility' involved Microsoft not getting paid a license fee for each Linux and Mac computer in schools."
I don't understand (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I don't understand (Score:4, Interesting)
Companies have been doing that a lot and for quite some time.
Its not just Microsoft, other example include SCO, MPAA, RIAA, News Corp,
They simply do it as long as they can get away with it.
Re:I don't understand (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:I don't understand (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I don't understand (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not about individuals buying Windows off the shelf. It's about keeping the big boxshifters (Dell et al) on the Windows treadmill.
A local grey-box assembler in Australia pays about AU$210 wholesale for an OEM copy of Vista Business. Dell pays about AU$40 for the same thing. When a basic business-capable computer can be put together for about AU$800, that difference in the MS tax between the two businesses is what's keeping Dell alive.
Dell's selling Linux boxes now, because most of the grey-box builders offer cheap computers with Ubuntu installed, and they don't want to be left behind. But you can bet your bottom dollar they'll be shitting bricks at the thought of having to compete without that MS built buffer.
Re:Buyer beware (Score:5, Interesting)
This is not a contract that all schools in Norway, or the norwgian directorate for education entered into. This is Microsofts licensing option for schools, used by SOME schools and school districts. I dare say the schools who used this licensing scheme did abide by it. Parts of this licensing agreement has now been deemed unlawful.
Did you even read the slashdot summary? Some parts of the contract are illegal in norway. So I think Microsoft will have to change them, since our justice department is bought, like yours. FTA:
Schools (Score:4, Interesting)
Microsoft know very well that when they issue a contract with schools to use their software, and they can sneak in the clause that no other software than theirs can be (factually or economically) used by those schools, they can almost give away their software and still make huge profits.
After all, the pupils coming out of those schools are pre-programmed to accept only Microsoft software. They don't even know there are alternatives.
When they are employed somewhere, and they find Linux or OpenOffice, they claim "I have to be trained to work with this", and the employers are faces with training costs to use open software that they don't need to spend when Microsoft software is used.
This is put on the "cost of ownership" balance, and as training and other costs involving man-hours are often more expensive than software licenses, the balance quickly tips towards using Microsoft.
Re:Buyer beware (Score:3, Interesting)
Same old crap M$ has been pulling for years (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Why does this not surprise me... (Score:5, Interesting)
Old as Standard Oil - the drawback (Score:4, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Oil [wikipedia.org]
"Smaller companies decried the deals as being unfair because they were not producing enough oil to qualify for discounts. In 1872, Rockefeller joined the South Improvement Company which would have allowed him to receive rebates for shipping oil but also to receive drawbacks on oil his competitors shipped. When word got out of this arrangement, competitors convinced the Pennsylvania Legislature to revoke South Improvement's charter. No oil was ever shipped under this arrangement."
This is a minor modification of Standard Oil's drawback, except it works on your customers as opposed to a company supplying you a service. The basic idea is to use your monopoly power to force another business entity to give you money every time they do business with one of your competitors.
Re:I don't understand (Score:4, Interesting)
To the government of Norway, people are the important ones.
Here in the USA the companies can do almost anything they want and you as a consumer is getting bent over and raped over and over again and all you do, is to say "Thank you! One more time please!" What the fuck is wrong with you?
Re:Schools (Score:3, Interesting)
Unfortunately, this is not true.
When I was in school, we still used typewriters, and calculators were just replacing slide rules.
But my youngest has had to submit her homework as MS Word
And my middle child has taken a for-credit "computer" class in the local college which only taught basic MS Office usage.
At least my oldest, who is in graduate school going for a PhD in computer science, tells me that most people in his department use Apples. He sometimes runs XP and Vista, usually in parallels, and uses Linux in the lab.
At that level the use of Open Office, Eclipse, Cygwin, etc., is common. But down here in the ordinary work world, which the schools tend to train for (in lieu of educating) the monopoly still monopolizes.
Ironic (Score:4, Interesting)
Ignorant anomymous MS shill, c/o Slashdot (Score:3, Interesting)
I saw similar shills on a blog claiming that Office 2003 and 2007 were perfectly compatible after a poster had shown his exact problem in going between the two versions. The replies from the fanbois were insulting, information-free and arrogant - much like normal MS output.
Full disclosure: I am a Norwegian, in a very small way involved privately in Skolelinux/Debian EDU and I do know about the deal.
Re:Ironic (Score:3, Interesting)
Good to see we surprise you
I must live in a different Norway than the one you've heard of. We're only doing what all sane countries should, smack down on corporate BS when it threatens healthy competition. Our system is in place to ensure fair competition, not to "stifle it". It works very well, and discourages dirty business practices.
Re:I don't understand (Score:3, Interesting)
Funny, I always thought that by offering Ubuntu in addition to the unadvertised Redhat, that Dell would be trying to hold onto its current corporate customers and attract new corporate customers that are currently using Windows and will continue to use Windows for a little while, just in case this 'Linux thing' 'ever takes off*'.
*We can debate whether or not Linux has already taken off, but from the corporate perspective, it's still a backend thing because most of their mission-critical desktop applications are neither ported over yet or have comparable products that they can transfer their data to.
Re:I don't understand (Score:5, Interesting)
The worst part about the US society is that people are apathetic. As long as they get their Tv shows and celebrity news along with a healthy dose of bullshit about USA #1, they are happy. And they don't even have the imagination to think that people in other countries are better off.
The real funny part is that many Americans I have discussed with consider the Scandinavian countries to be socialistic but fail to realize that we have as many billionaires per capita as USA does, I even think Sweden has more per capita. Not to mention that even we have a national health care system, most of the players are private and not government run. And they make good money too. My experience is that Americans are socially dumber than Europeans and have been so brainwashed that they can not believe how bad the US society is.
Isn't it amazing (Score:4, Interesting)
It makes you wonder why the government and/or educational bodies themselves didn't say anything about such an obvious ploy.