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

[Roger Dingledine <arma@mit.edu>]

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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