<at some point i said> > 1. viruses, trojans, malware. <snip> > 2. on microsoft PCs, people will install all sorts of > pirate games. <snip> > sure, DOE might lock down those computers, > <snip>
I see Orly's point now. I didn't read the article and instead assumed that the PCs would be owned and controlled by the DOE. In fact, however, they'll be owned by the teachers who take advantage of the financing terms. In that case, I agree with (i think it was Prof Feria) that the DOE should provide an optional package, with open source software, but essentially it's the teacher's choice. As far as I can tell (the article doesn't go into much detail, so i can only extrapolate and guess), it looks like microsoft provides the software, perhaps intel provides the CPUs, the rest of the hardware is probably sourced from whitebox providers (or maybe intel just has a whole bunch of old celeron boxes lying around, unsellable), and the financing is by Asia United Bank. so it doesn't look like microsoft is actually giving very much away. maybe they can take a tax loss on the 90% that they gave away, so they might actually benefit (since those teachers wouldn't have bought microsoft anyway, if they could afford the PCs, they would have pirated the OS and Office). but i see Orly's point and sort of agree with him on the deal making more sense for the teachers if they go with microsoft. as it happens, i think they're going to start whining when their kids bring floppies with macro viruses that delete all their files (happens all the time, i've rescued several people who had that happen to them) but the kids will use microsoft anyway because of all the pirated games they can play. ah well. open source can't compete until all the best games can be pirated for linux too. my main argument of free as in beer bites me in my own donkey, since, in the philippines, all software is essentially already free as in beer anyway, due to the piracy. tiger -- Gerald Timothy Quimpo http://bopolissimus.sni.ph [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Public Key: "gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 672F4C78" Mene sakhet ur-seveh -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
