On Saturday 04 May 2002 09:31 am, you wrote: > On Sat, 2002-05-04 at 00:42, Carroll Grigsby wrote: > > Carroll, > > Check out the following URL, if the excerpt is interesting to you -- > > http://www.mlug.ca/paul/stories/column26_html > > Excerpt from that article -- > ____________________________________________________________________ > > MS Insurance - or Else > > by Paul Tatham > > Thu May 2 21:01:03 2002 > > I suppose by now that a great many people have read Steve Duin's article > about the MS audit that is being thrown at the northwestern schools. And > if you haven't read it please do so. It's a good example of how the J.P. > Morgans, John D. Rockefellers and the William H. Gateses III of the > world operate. > > The threat of an audit is a powerful weapon, and one which MS and the > Business Software Alliance wield with some skill (in Canada it's called > the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft, or CAAST). What is even > more remarkable is that the full weight of the law is behind it. > > _____________________________________________________________________ > > > LX
LX: Excellent article, and well worth a read. In particular, the comparison made between the BSA's software audits and the mob's "insurance" policies is right on the money. It's pure extortion any way that you look at it. What makes it especially reprehensible is when it is used against schools and similar organizations to beat them into being 100 per cent Microsoft. One of the leading companies behind the BSA is Autodesk (of AutoCad fame). For those of you who haven't dealt with that bunch of arrogant bastards, they actually make MS seem like nice guys. Unstable (their motto: We WILL crash your system), expensive (about $3600 for bare bones AutoCad; version upgrades in the $600 range), very poor support (and it usually costs extra). One of the great joys of retirement is not having to deal with that mess. -- cmg
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
