On Wed, 21 Nov 2001, Bob Miller wrote: <snippage> > > Did we all notice what this "$1.1 billion" settlement will actually > cost Microsoft? The major component is Microsoft software, which they > copy for free. (No printed manuals for the kiddies.) The secondary > component is computer hardware, which is "refurbished". I.e., they' > dumping all their obsolete equipment into schools. The only real cost > will probably be $100K/year or so of administration overhead. > > Oh, and then they get a $550 million tax writeoff. > > They certainly have chutzpah. > And of course the major media outlets reported it rather uncritically and the average person is under the impression that is actually >$1 billion cost to M$. This is why it's called the business press.
I was rather irritated by one of the comments from plaintiffs counsel about how 'the kids'll have to learn Microsoft software eventually to get a job... On the other hand maybe we could fix it so they had to give up the source to say NT for 'educational purposes' though what tens of thousands of bored teens with that kind of access would do with it is rather scary.
