Letter from a Microsoft pusher

Curt Howland Howland at priss.com
Fri May 10 19:28:03 EDT 2013


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I received a letter today from a computer recycler which proudly puts 
Windows on their machines and then gives them to people who can't 
afford to buy Windows. Their words are quoted (since I don't know how 
to highlight in ascii):

"Microsoft donates Windows licenses to organizations such as ours, 
millions each year."

Yes, I'm sure they do. The better to get their malware into the hands 
of the unaware.

"When you are poor and want to get a job employers want people that 
know Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Visio, Project, SharePoint, 
Dynamics and hundreds of other standard business programs offered by 
Microsoft."

Translating skills from one Office suite to another, such as 
OpenOffice to Microsoft Office, is not different from translating 
between different versions of Microsoft office. However, on the rest 
of these applications, I agree. Somehow, I doubt that they're getting 
free licenses for all of them. The same objection to the expensive 
upgrade treadmill exists for these applications as well.

"We tried to offer Linux systems with open office for $25 a system 
when we started, never had one person ever look at one - we can't 
even give them away - I tried to."

No, they tried to sell them, not give them away.

Even allowing that they dropped the $25 pricetag, it's a fact that 
people think that Windows is Free. The comparison in their minds is 
not the $200 Windows license vs. $0 for Linux/LibreOffice, it's 
between $0 with the Microsoft label and $0 without it. The choice is 
obvious. I have written about this before:

http://anarchic-order.blogspot.com/2011/03/windows-is-not-free.html

And it is the "poor" who are least able to afford not getting 
hacked/cracked upgrades "from a friend" when their "free" Windows 
runs out.

"They want Windows or Apple and Apple has no interest in poor people. 
If you have kids they want to play games - not Linux games, good 
games that their friends are playing online."

Three gross assumptions here:

1) Microsoft cares about people who cannot afford their software
2) Linux games are not good
3) Online games don't run on Linux

2 and 3 are sadly somewhat true, yet rapidly declining. I have to 
wonder what these "poor" people are doing paying for first-run games 
and online game time. Maybe they're getting hacked/cracked versions 
of them?

1, however, is absurd. Microsoft Corporation wants people to buy their 
product. By giving this one away just like the drug dealer, they 
perpetuate the illusion that there is nothing else.

"I think there are lots of zealots running around that think they have 
the only solution for mankind when in fact there are many."

Zealots also push Microsoft crapware.

"You seem to have twisted 'the value of genuine' - all that means is 
LEGAL not cracked or virus ridden."

This copy is all nice and legal, sure. What about the upgrade that 
the "poor" will soon have to buy? Will that also be all legal and not 
cracked or virus ridden? No. Only the first one is free.

Giving people Windows and Microsoft crapware is not doing them any 
favors.

Curt-


- -- 
The Magistrate, enrobed in taxes, condemns the thief in stolen rags.

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