[Am-info] The cost of Microsoft's school charity settlement

[Mitch Stone]

The way I understand this deal, if any of the states opt out of the 
settlement, it collapses. California is making noises about opting out, 
if only (I suspect) because California is home to Microsoft's single 
competitor in the schools market, and they will be damaged severely if it 
goes through.

Remarkable, isn't it? Within one month, Microsoft manages two antitrust 
settlements that actually harm competition further rather than protect or 
promote it. It seems that the lawyer corp who are supposed to be looking 
after our interests on this issue are in the process of capitulating 
wholesale -- throwing in towel entirely on the concept of a competitive 
computer market. One of the class action attorneys was quoted as saying 
that the deal would be good for kids because they need to learn to use 
Microsoft software to be employable.

 Mitch Stone  
 mitch@accidentalexpert.com