Evil, evil, naughty Micro$oft! You bad, bad company! You acted monopolistically, leveraged your economic strength to put your competitors out of business — those you didn’t destroy by manipulating your control of the OS. You are a monopoly the likes of which has not been seen since Standard Oil, and you’re darned lucky those Bushies decided not to push to break you up.
However shall we punish you, then?
Oh! Well, that Federal settlement is clearly too lax! We several states and various private parties will really hold your feet to the fire! We will! We want you to pay! Pay! Pay!
What’s that? Hey … Bill … that’s a great idea! Rather than making you pay cash, we’ll make you do something useful — like give away a bunch of software! And hardware! Well, it’s old hardware — and fully depreciated — and it will count as a charitible contribution, so it won’t really cost you any money … but think of all the people it could help!
What’s that? Hey, an even better idea! Let M$ contribute it to schools! Schools can always use more computers, right? And M$ can decide which schools, too.
What’s that? Oh, just those ingrates from Apple, noting that this is letting Micro$oft flood the educational market, the one market it does not yet dominate, with its own hardware and software, thus creating an established base for future domination of the K-12 world. And noting that M$ will get to choose which schools to contribute to, like, maybe, ones that might buy other peoples’ computers. Like Apple’s. What a bunch of trouble-makers. What a bunch of spoil-sports!
What a bunch of losers.
(Via LargelyPro)