Re: [seul-edu] (FWD) Red Hat Proposes Alternative to Microsoft settlement

[Jonathan Opp <jopp@redhat.com>]

Bill, 

One suggestion for the short term: Judge J. Frederick Motz is allowing
3rd party opinions to be faxed to him. The catch is you don't have much
time. He'll decide in a hearing on the 27th whether or not the
settlement passes.

Take a look at http://www.redhat.com/opensourcenow for contact info.

Jonathan


SteelHead wrote:
> 
> As a point of FWIW
> 
> I am thinking that perhaps we should all get together on
> one front and start communications with schools and the
> major "commercial" distributors supporting the desktop...
> say Red hat SuSE Mandrake and so forth.. And have them
> start lobbing communicatioons up stram to the DOJ and
> Attorney's General and anyone else in the loop.
> 
> I am alreading starting a discussion with Red Hat on this
> and I would like to know what comments or concerns any of
> you might like to add.  This being the Thanksgiving Weekend
> here, I will be in my office working on it only
> sporadically.   I will post the text of my message here
> before sending it to Red hat.
> 
> Bill
> 
> On Tuesday 20 November 2001 17:00, Roger Dingledine wrote:
> > It's really a shame that Microsoft is going to get away
> > with further extending its monopoly as part of its
> > "punishment".
> >
> > Ah well,
> > --Roger
> >
> > ----- Forwarded message from "R. A. Hettinga"
> > <rah@shipwright.com> -----
> >
> > Date:         Tue, 20 Nov 2001 16:07:00 -0800
> > Sender: Law & Policy of Computer Communications
> > <CYBERIA-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM>
> > From: Doug Masson <dmasson@WELL.COM>
> > Subject:      Red Hat Proposes Alternative to Microsoft
> > settlement
> >
> > I thought this was a nice piece of public relations from
> > Red Hat:
> >
> > Subject: Red Hat proposes Alternative to Microsoft
> > Settlement
> >
> > Red Hat Proposes to Enhance Microsoft Settlement Offer By
> > Providing Open Source Software to All U.S. School
> > Districts RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Nov 20, 2001
> > (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Open Source leader proposes to provide
> > software to every school district in the United States if
> > Microsoft provides computing hardware for the 14,000
> > poorest school districts
> >
> > Red Hat, Inc. (Nasdaq:RHAT) today proposed an alternative
> > to the settlement announced today of the class-action
> > lawsuit against Microsoft. Red Hat offered to provide
> > open-source software to every school district in the
> > United States free of charge, encouraging Microsoft to
> > redirect the money it would have spent on software into
> > purchasing more hardware for the 14,000 poorest school
> > districts. Under the Red Hat proposal, by removing
> > Microsoft's higher-priced software from the settlement
> > equation, Microsoft could provide the school districts
> > with many more computers--greatly extending the benefits
> > Microsoft seeks to provide school districts with their
> > proposed settlement.
> >
> > Microsoft had proposed that, in settlement of
> > class-action claims of price-gouging, the company donate
> > computer hardware, software and support to 14,000 poor
> > school districts throughout the United States. Under the
> > proposed settlement, a substantial part of the value
> > provided to schools would be in the form of Microsoft
> > software.
> >
> >     The Red Hat's alternative proposal includes the
> > following: --  Microsoft redirects the value of their
> > proposed software donation to the purchase of additional
> > hardware for the school districts. This would increase
> > the number of computers available under the original
> > proposal from 200,000 to more than one million, and would
> > increase the number of systems per school from
> > approximately 14 to at least 70. --  Red Hat, Inc. will
> > provide free of charge the open-source Red Hat Linux
> > operating system, office applications and associated
> > capabilities to any school system in the United States.
> > --  Red Hat will provide online support for the software
> > through the Red Hat Network.
> >     --  Unlike the Microsoft proposal, which has a
> > five-year time limit at which point schools would have to
> > pay Microsoft to renew their licenses and upgrade the
> > software, the Red Hat proposal has no time limit. Red Hat
> > will provide software upgrades through the Red Hat
> > Network online distribution channel.
> >     A Win-Win Approach
> > The Red Hat proposal achieves two important goals:
> > improving the quality and accessibility of computing
> > education in the nation's less-privileged schools, and
> > preventing the extension of Microsoft's monopoly to the
> > most-vulnerable users.
> >
> > "While we applaud Microsoft for raising the idea of
> > helping poorer schools as part of the penalty phase of
> > their conviction for monopolistic practices, we do not
> > think that the remedy should be a mechanism by which
> > Microsoft can further extend its monopoly," said Matthew
> > Szulik, CEO of Red Hat. "Through this proposal all of the
> > states and all of the schools can win, and Microsoft will
> > achieve even greater success for its stated goal of
> > helping schools. By providing schools with a software
> > choice, Red Hat will enable Microsoft to provide many
> > more computers to these schools. At the same time, the
> > schools can accept this offer secure in the knowledge
> > that they have not rewarded a monopolist by extending the
> > monopoly. It's now up to Microsoft to demonstrate that
> > they are truly serious about helping our schools."
> >
> > General information about Red Hat's support for education
> > is available at www.redhat.com/opensourcenow/.
> >
> >
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> > --- end forwarded text