Subsidising the 'cure' to cancer Linux

It has been about a month since we last showed Microsoft's use of 'donations' to fight GNU/Linux adoption wherever it crops up. Here is a new example:

Ases Eee PC with XP - special discount for schools?

[...]

So, hold on a second! A special tender for educational institutions? And this is only for the XP version of the Eee PC, not the Linux version? I wonder who managed to line up this deal? Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if Microsoft would be the one sponsoring this. Probably giving away the copies of XP more or less for free. If anyone has any information on the details of this, please let me know...

Actually, assuming that Microsoft 'pays' for this special deal makes perfect sense, considering their recent DreamSpark initiative (see my comment about that here). As far as I can see, this is yet another attempt to ensure that students, as young as possible, are being let towards Microsoft products and are prevented to experience any alternatives. And since those closed-source products always hide 'how it works' from students, the only thing the students are left to learn is 'how to use it'. Training students with proprietary software just trains them to be IT users. Click here, click there. It only trains them in a particular vendor's products.

In many recent stories you will find that Microsoft does not only give Windows for free, but it also covers the cost of the hardware. Intel does the same thing by the way, but it has a bone to pick with AMD, not only GNU/Linux [1, 2, 3]. For one's reading pleasure, other similar (and recent) examples include:

1. Bill Gates' Retirement Merely a Political Lock-in Crusade
2. Microsoft 'Buys' Dubai Away from GNU/Linux, Calls it “Charity”; Paris Also?
3. OOXML Sins and “Charity” Against GNU/Linux
4. It's Not Dumping Because They Call it “Charity”
5. Boosting Windows Vista Sales Using AIDS

There are many more examples, so be sure to follow cross-references (both backward and forward in time). All of these operations were not quite so prevalent a year ago, so it demonstrates Microsoft's urgency in handling this 'problem'. Openly enough, Microsoft has even stated that it's a case of fighting the adoption of GNU/Linux (it didn't use these exact same words though). ⬆

"Asked if he could start over and develop an operating system from scratch, what would he do? [Gates:] Nothing."

From "Bill Gates: Cheap PCs won't help the poor", March 2008

"Geez, get a decent computer where you can actually read the text and you're not sitting there cranking the thing while you're trying to type."

Bill Gates about OLPC, Microsoft Government Leaders Forum