Because it's tax deductible.
Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote:
>
> The idea of a "gift" is not uncommon in the media. Often, the
> "journalist" will get to keep the item they are reviewing if they
> write something favourable. I heard a few years ago that Sony was
> giving away PlayStations to anyone in the media who said something
> good about the console, even just in passing. This was informal; they
> wouldn't tell people "say something nice about us and we'll give you a
> PlayStation". Instead they would reward those who said good things out
> of the blue. This meant there was no "bribe" as such, but
> "journalists" and presenters were encouraged to evangelise the
> PlayStation in the hope of getting one from Sony.
>
> For a software company, this is especially easy. A pressed CD only
> costs a few cents nowadays (when mass-produced, of course). When M$
> donates software to schools and charities, they can say "we donated XX
> million dollars worth of software" when the cost to them was only a
> few bucks. They aren't losing potential customers by giving the
> software away, since these non-profit organisations couldn't have
> afforded it anyway.
>
> On Fri, 15 Jun 2001 20:43, Romanator wrote:
> > I bet Microsoft provided a lotta software as a "gift" for writing
> > these articles. There will be more to come. Many times the writers
> > must ship the drafts to Microsoft for approval before it goes to
> > print. However, I wouldn't get alarmed. They are blowing a lot of
> > hot air.
> >
> > Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote:
> > > There have been many rebuttals published to this article all over
> > > the Internet: aboutlinux.com, linuxtoday.com, lwn.net, and even
> > > ZDNet itself. Gartner Dataquest's figures (sponsored by Microsoft)
> > > are in direct contrast to those made by other research companies.
> > > IDC, for example, gives GNU/Linux a share of about 24%. IDC and
> > > others recognise that most GNU/Linux installations are not bought
> > > shrink-wrapped like proprietary OSs are, and that a single copy
> > > can be used on an unlimited number of computers.
> > >
> > > Also, many vendors don't give the option of buying a computer
> > > without Windows. People are forced to pay for Windows licenses,
> > > but when they get their computers they wipe the hard drive and
> > > install GNU/Linux. As the computer is not purchased with GNU/Linux
> > > initially installed, it is counted as a Windows machine.
> > >
> > > On Fri, 15 Jun 2001 17:01, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> > > > A story from www.theregister.co.uk:
> > > >
> > > > (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/19662.html)
> > > >
> > > > No one's using Linux, claims Microsoft
> > > > By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
> > > > Posted: 13/06/2001 at 11:21 GMT
> > > >
> > > > Gartner Dataquest has pegged the proportion
> > > > of Linux servers shipped in the United States at 8.6 per cent.
> > > >
> > > > Gartner analyst Jeffery Hewitt claims that
> > > > this figure - which includes 'white box' shipments, but excludes
> > > > server appliances such as Sun's Cobalt range - is dramatically
> > > > lower than the 20 per cent plus cited by arch rivals IDC. Of
> > > > that 8.6 per cent, eight per cent is attributed to Red Hat and
> > > > 0.6 per cent to other distros.
> > > >
> > > > The survey is dated May 30, but was made
> > > > public yesterday.
> > > >
> > > > We don't usually hear about analyst surveys
> > > > from vendors in advance of publication. But yesterday a note
> > > > dropped in from Microsoft's PR company, Waggener Edstrom.
> > > >
> > > > "8.6 per cent is... certainly in line with
> > > > what we are hearing from our customers and partners," wrote a
> > > > friendly Wagg-Ed flak.
> > > >
> > > > Now there's some dispute over what a
> > > > 'shipment' actually involves, as NewsForge's Rob 'roblimo'
> > > > Miller points out in this analysis. And he has a very good
> > > > point: for example, Gartner pegs Linux shipments in the
> > > > supercomputer space as 'zero' this year. In fact Linux is well
> > > > established on commodity parallel clusters at many scientific
> > > > sites. Many of these were assembled in-house, so a shipment
> > > > clearly doesn't correlate to a working installation.
> > > >
> > > > However, Microsoft's pre-emptive strike may
> > > > be tactical. Hewitt actually predicts that volume shipments of
> > > > Linux - even using Gartner's contested definition of 'shipment'
> > > > and 'server' - will mushroom in the next four years.
> > > >
> > > > Total worldwide Linux deployment will
> > > > quadruple from 2.4 million to 9.1 million, predicts Gartner,
> > > > with explosive growth in the supercomputer area: up from that
> > > > dubious 'zero' this year to over 5000 by 2005. In the $25,000 to
> > > > $100,000 range - the low-end company workhorse - Linux shipments
> > > > will increase ninefold. In the sub-$5000 space, Linux will grow
> > > > over six fold.
> > > >
> > > > So this may be a case of the Beast getting
> > > > its retaliation in first.
> > > >
> > > > Might be interesting to know :-)
> > > > Paul
> > >
> > > --
> > > Sridhar Dhanapalan.
> > > "There are two major products that come from Berkeley:
> > > LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence."
> > > -- Jeremy S. Anderson
>
> --
> Sridhar Dhanapalan.
> "There are two major products that come from Berkeley:
> LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence."
> -- Jeremy S. Anderson
--
Roman
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