[NTLUG:Discuss] Micro$oft is killing small town budgets- no mention of an alternative?

[Steve Baker]

Kevin Ivey wrote:
 
> In this AP article, the jacked-up license costs are in return for a
> "simpler to understand and administer" forced upgrade plan.
> Don't want or need to upgrade now?  You'll pay much more later.
> Pure fear mongering.

Yep.

Well, people have allowed Microsoft to become a monopoly - and we
all know what happens to prices once a monopoly has finally eradicated
all credible opposition.  It looks like Microsoft now believe they have
reached that point because their prices are going up throughout their
product range.

Another story that's like that is the Xbox saga.  I heard that if you
want to buy an Xbox before Xmas, they are going to force you to buy
several hundred dollars worth of M$ software to go with it. The base
price for the console is $300 - but if you want it by Xmas, you'll have
to pay $500 and be stuck with three overpriced M$ games and a spare
controller.  They originally announced that the price would be $1400
including 14 games and an extended warranty - but I think they've backed
down from that position.

That's certainly going to upset the independant games companies no
end - and it's something that Sony or Nintendo wouldn't dare to do - the
fact that Microsoft thinks it can get away with it speaks volumes.

One problem that's fairly unique to the Microsoft situation is that with
most earlier monopoly issues (think AT&T), it was fairly easy for users
to make use of the newly diversified services once the monopoly had been
broken up by legal means.  However, Windoze is so firmly embedded in the
commercial world that no matter what happens to Microsoft, we are still
stuck with Windoze being the dominant platform.

The Microsoft monopoly can (in principle) be broken by legal means - but the
Windoze monopoly will remain.

Perhaps our best chance with Linux is NOT to advocate reigning in Microsoft's
excesses but to allow them to jack up prices to the sky and wait for the
world to realise that there is a free (and incidentally Free) alternative.

If the case of the city of Stillwater is typical (their $27k IT budget now
needs to be $77k because of M$'s pricing changes) - that time may not be
long in coming.

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