-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Lias] Latest Microsoft Stupidity From: "Les Bell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
According to a Slashdot story, Microsoft has published a page which implies that replacing a copy of Windows on a computer donated to a school is illegal. See the Slashdot story at http://slashdot.org/articles/02/04/18/1623240.shtml?tid=109 and the Microsoft page at http://www.microsoft.com/education/?id=DonatedComputers Ignoring, for the moment, the incredible arrogance of Microsoft's assumption that *their* interpretation of the law applies in all jurisdictions, their statement that "It is a legal requirement that pre-installed operating systems remain with a machine for the life of the machine" is not part of any law that I'm aware, except perhaps the exceedingly fine print of the increasingly restrictive Microsoft EULA. (And without checking the details, I suspect that attempts by Microsoft to tie their operating system to a computer may breach the provisions of the Trade Practices Act.) The statement appears to be an attempt to scare educators into not replacing the pre-loaded - and probably registry-rotted - copy of Windows on the machine with something useful, such as Linux. Worse still, it appears to contradict previous statements by Microsoft Australia, which wants to see a new copy of Windows shipped with every computer "re-birthed" by charities. A pox on them, say I! I, for one, will be redoubling my efforts to put Linux everywhere I can in the education system, especially on donated computers! Best, --- Les [http://www.lesbell.com.au] _______________________________________________ lias mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.linux.org.au/listinfo/lias -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
