Re: [school-discuss] MS Schools Agreement anti-competitive UK

[Paul Tietjens <ptietjens@moriarty.k12.nm.us>]

Private industry seems to have no problem understanding that they have a 
choice, and district I work for understands it.

They have a choice, and it's real, and it's easily discovered, if they but 
took the to time to look (like... pick up a newspaper or a trade magazine 
once in a while).  I would suggest that the blame for what they understand 
does not lay with the company they feel is the only choice.

On Tuesday 06 May 2003 03:14 pm, Steve Leonard-Clarke wrote:
> i used the verb "enforce"  which means "to compel observance of" / "to
> impose" or "to persist in"
>
> i deliberately avoided the use of the verb "force" which means to
> "constrain someone against their will".
>
> perhaps i should have used the verb "reinforce" (derived from the verb
> "enforce") as MS already have the monopoly in schools and via the MS
> Schools agreement are indeed making life easy for schools to sit tight
> and stick with what they already know.
>
> the point i am trying to make in support of this discussion is that
> schools in the U.K. are not actually given a "choice". my experience of
> senior ict managers in national and local government are not informed
> enough to understand that they have a choice.
> from the top down Microsoft products "persist" because of their monopoly
> of the desktop. this is down to their successful marketing.
> of course schools have a choice but do they know they do?
>
> steve leonard-clarke
>
> On Tue, 2003-05-06 at 21:22, Paul Tietjens wrote:
> > If you don't want to license all of your machines, there are many options
> > available.  They aren't forcing you into the agreement, so...  I fail to
> > see how they 'force' you to license all machines.