>From what I understand, the students at the University of Nebraska were less than thrilled with this deal:
http://www.dailynebraskan.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2002/09/19/3d893c2e14a46?in_archive=1 William Ward wrote: > > All the more reason to press the administration with the other costs > associated with this infrastructure: > > 1. Support fees to MS. > 2. Expensive third-party software. > 3. Insecure and low-quality code. > 4. Hardware costs and upgrade cycles. > 5. Computer software auditing overhead, because you KNOW they'll be > back to make sure you bought everything they demanded. > > Bill > > On Sunday, September 29, 2002, at 06:12 PM, Matt Matthews wrote: > > > On Sun, Sep 29, 2002 at 05:46:22PM -0400, Jon Carnes wrote: > >> Microsoft has made a deal with University of Nebraska and is looking > >> to > >> extend that to other Universities. The university pays a big lump sum > >> for a licensing contract and then all the students can purchase > >> Microsoft products at Employee prices: WinXP OS for $4.99, Office for > >> $9.99, ... > > > > Why isn't this considered "dumping" product onto the market at > > abnormally low > > prices? I thought that in certain circumstances this was illegal. > > Furthermore, > > I would think that an established (by the courts) monopoly would be > > subject of > > even more stringent rules of conduct in the marketplace that would > > prevent > > this. > > > > I saw this story yesterday, and it made me angry. I realize that this > > effectively does what some have said would have to happen eventually > > due to > > market pressures (lower costs of the OS and apps to 'reasonable' > > levels) but > > this seems to be going too far that way: dropping the price to flush > > the > > market of competitors, both free and non-free. Is it good for the > > consumer? > > Short-sightedly, yes, it is because they get stuff they "need" for low > > prices; > > but in the long-term this entrenches an established, unhealthy > > monopoly even > > more. > > > > Regards, > > matt > > > > -- > > Matt Matthews \ ph: 919.660.2811 \ Use GNU/Linux _o) w00t > > Duke Univ., Postdoc\ [EMAIL PROTECTED] \____________ /\\ > > Dept. of Mathematics\ http://www.math.duke.edu/~jvmatthe/ \ _\_V > > _______________________________________________ > > TriLUG mailing list > > http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug > > TriLUG Organizational FAQ: > > http://www.trilug.org/~lovelace/faq/TriLUG-faq.html > > > > _______________________________________________ > TriLUG mailing list > http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug > TriLUG Organizational FAQ: > http://www.trilug.org/~lovelace/faq/TriLUG-faq.html -- Janyne Kizer CNE-3, CNE-4, CNE-5 Systems Programmer Administrator NC State University, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences Extension Information Technology _______________________________________________ TriLUG mailing list http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ: http://www.trilug.org/~lovelace/faq/TriLUG-faq.html
