Re: [seul-edu] MS targeting schools for software audits...

[William Abernathy <william@inch.com>]

I'm reading this thread with increasing frustration.

Yes, Microsoft can do that. Yes, they are jerks.

What the hell are you going to do about it?

I used to live in Portland. I remember a time when the "Church" of Scientology 
was being sued in federal court there, and Scientologists swarmed the place, 
thousands of them, so many that they were literally camping out on the rooftops 
of the Scientology buildings. I think our cult operating system should do 
something similar.

This morning I called the CTO's office in Portland, and volunteered to head up 
there and help out. It's 650 miles from here on my motorbike, but if they want 
to install free software, I'll make the trip. There are 25,000 machines in that 
district. How many fanatical volunteers can we put on the ground in Portland? 
How many of you are willing to go there for a week or two and help with the 
conversion? If we can mobilize 1000 volunteers from across the country, the job 
would be done in a couple of weeks!

I think we can pull off a miracle here. I think one school district should draw 
a line in the sand and tell Microsoft to go pound it. And if their conversion is 
a success, it will live on as a testament to democratic power, and as a 
wonderful test-bed for further educational free software development.

--William


tom poe wrote:

> On Monday 22 April 2002 12:05, paul melo wrote:
> - - -snip - - -
> 
>>"......even those running Linux or Mac OS."
>>
>>Could someone explain this part to me?
>>How could they say MS licenses be "required" if running Linux?
>>Appears to be absurd.
>>
>>
>>thanks,
>>paul
>>
> 
> 
> Hi:  It is absurd, and one response would be to toss all computers out the 
> door.  There would be little problem replacing each and every one with 
> another, Open Source, of course.  There are so many ways to support linux 
> based networks, and plenty of linux users' groups that stand ready to assist. 
>  All it would take is one or two enterprising school administrators to pull 
> it off.
> Thanks,
> Tom Poe
> Reno, NV
> http://www.studioforrecording.org/
> http://www.ibiblio.org/studioforrecording/
> http://renotahoe.pm.org/
> 
> 
>