Chad Smith wrote:
I never denied the lock-in factor.
Okay, I'm glad you see that.
The point I was trying to make, though, is the school has a legal right to
install MSO on all their computers.
But that's not the point of discussion. This is not what makes the
agreement illegal or wrong.
Second, this agreement is *ILLEGAL*. Do you condone breaking the law?
#1 - no one has proved its illegal in Norway yet.
There is good reason to think that it is, because Norway is an affiliate
of the EU and the agreement is known to be illegal in the EU. Indeed,
the agreement is probably illegal in most countries that have a notion
of an Office of Fair Trade.
#2 - there are plenty of laws that I don't agree with - just because
something is illegal in one country doesn't mean it's morally wrong.
I've seen you argue that if something doesn't break the law it's ok.
What's your experience in the education sector? Here we have other
people who have been managing or auditing schools for living about as
long as you've been around. Consider their experience.
Consider their bias.
They have spent their time trying to sell service agreements for their
company
I'm not aware of Ian losing money due to the school's agreement. Most of
Ian's income is through consulting contracts. So I don't think Ian is
biased in this regard.
If they buy computers from the
auditor/computer dealer, which have a free copy of OOo on there, the
auditor/computer dealer gets money.
Ian doesn't make money from OpenOffice installations.
I, on the other hand, who do not work for Microsoft, own stock in Microsoft
- OR - sell computers to schools - have nothing to gain either way.
Ian has more experience than you, he doesn't own stock on MS, nor does
he make money competting with MS. He makes money through consulting
contracts, mostly in the UK Specialist Schools program. He does have a
computer company but they focus on support contracts AFAIK. They
certainly don't make money competting with MS. The other line of
business is INGOTs, which again, doesn't compete with MS at all.
Also I believe that computer education
should be more well rounded, instead of teaching Microsoft Excel - schools
should teach How to use a Spreadsheet. I feel the same way against teaching
OOo Calc, btw - it should be more general, not as
application-version-software specific.
Please look into the INGOTs programme. It does exactly that, with good
pedagogy thrown in.
Cheers,
Daniel.
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