[seul-edu] [Fwd: Fwd: Public comment]

[Doug Loss <drloss@suscom.net>]

owner-seul-edu@seul.org wrote:

> From: Bill <selinux@home.com>
> To: seul-edu@seul.org
> Subject: Fwd: Public comment
>
> This is my contribution toward a reasonable settlement of the DOJ v
> Microsoft Corporation anti-trust matter.
>
> Since I also posted on the schoolforge site urging others to send
> e-mail on this matter while the public comment period remains open, I
> thought it proper that I demonstrate my own follow-through of my own
> advice.
> Bill
>
> ----------  Forwarded Message  ----------
> Subject: Public comment
> Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2001 22:54:46 -0500
> From: Bill <selinux@home.com>
> To: microsoft.atr@usdoj.gov
> Cc: KLUG <members@kalamazoolinux.org>, LUGWASH
> <linux-users@lugwash.org>, Metro Detroit Linux Users Group
> <mdlug@radiusnet.net>, SUNCOAST LUG <slug@nks.net>
>
> It is my belief that the proposed antitrust settlement with Microsoft
> Corporation is not in the best interests of the American people. It
> does not protect against future abuses and in fact encourages the
> spread of the Microsoft software monopoly by training a vast army of
> young people to use their operating system and attendant application
> programs to the exclusion of very viable software alternatives.
> America is based on freedom of choice; but students in Americas'
> public schools can only learn to use computers, an essential skill
> for the coming generation of employees, on the products provided to
> them. Today, the Dept. of Justice has an opportunity to broaden the
> scope of that choice and thus empower generations yet unborn. It also
> has the opportunity to cavill to Bill Gates and thus must choose
> between greatness and ignominy.
>
> The Northern Territories school district in Australia, with a
> population of just over 200,000, finds that it saved $1,000,000 in
> the first year alone by using Linux alongside Microsoft products to
> provide computer education at all grade levels. This was enough to
> allow the school district to purchase an additional 1,000 computers
> for distribution in the schools and as loaner units for students (and
> their parents) to use at home. In a few short years their children
> will be competing, very effectively, on the worldwide intellectual
> marketplace against American children whose access to hardware was
> hampered by the prohibitive cost imposed by the practice of using
> Microsoft products all but exclusively in the public schools. The
> Australian experience could have been dramatically more productive
> had they used Linux as the operating system on all their computers
> but it was a good initial step. The present savings represent its use
> in their servers only.
>
> http://opensourceschools.org/article.php?story=20011207001012102
>
> I support the notion that Microsoft should pay its fine in hardware
> donations only. It has been brought to my attention that Red Hat
> Software of Research Triangle Park, NC, (near Durham, NC) has offered
> to provide pro-bono copies of the Linux operating system
> corresponding to a Microsoft donation of hardware. It is my desire
> that any donation of software that Microsoft might choose to make
> would not be included in the proposed settlement but must also be a
> pro-bono gesture corresponding to the Red Hat Software offer.
> Moreover, any copies of software Microsoft might donate should
> require no payment of any sort by the schools at any forward point in
> time. It must be a true donation of indefinite duration, just as the
> Red Hat offer is. Otherwise, if required to pay, the schools would
> eventually have to abandon their training programs for lack of funds
> to re-license / upgrade their software.
>
> http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/011120/202744_1.html
>
> While Microsoft Corporation should not be excluded from expressing
> generosity, such generosity, expressed as software gifts, only
> furthers their ability to monopolize the marketplace and should not
> be permitted as a part of the penalty for having followed illegal
> practices in the establishment of their dominance in the software
> market.
>
> Microsoft has painted itself the champion of choice and freewill
> while villifying open-source software as being un-American. I think
> it is time for their actions, public and private, to match their very
> public words.
>
> Software donations should be no part of the proposed settlement.
>
> Sincerely
> William G. Canaday
> Detroit, MI.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
>
> --
>          total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
> Mem:   1545352     997664     547688          0     317836     425324
> Swap:   401584          0     401584
> Total: 1946936     997664     949272
> Linux a.genesis.com 2.4.14 #3 Fri Nov 9 23:14:31 EST 2001 K7 750MHz
>  10:55pmup 1 day, 9 min,  2 users,  load average: 0.09, 0.03, 0.01




--
Doug Loss                 All I want is a warm bed
Data Network Coordinator  and a kind word and
Bloomsburg University     unlimited power.
dloss@bloomu.edu                Ashleigh Brilliant