, is a deal that prevents competition from Microsoft rivals. It is how Microsoft shuts the door to exclude superior and more affordable offers from all sorts of other companies. For actual examples see:
A regular site participant told the following story, which we have not yet summarised, so here is the raw log:
zer0c00l | Today i came to know that ms has threatened my educational head on licensing issue | Apr 23 11:37 |
zer0c00l | my head of the department told me personally | Apr 23 11:37 |
schestowitz | oiaohm: watch picture: http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2009/04/2... | Apr 23 11:38 |
zer0c00l | they threatened of lock down the whole educational institution | Apr 23 11:38 |
zer0c00l | so they agreed and signed a MOU with ms | Apr 23 11:38 |
schestowitz | Wow. | Apr 23 11:38 |
schestowitz | Which educational head | Apr 23 11:38 |
schestowitz | Regional? | Apr 23 11:38 |
zer0c00l | my college | Apr 23 11:38 |
schestowitz | Ha | Apr 23 11:38 |
schestowitz | Do you have written proof? | Apr 23 11:39 |
schestowitz | It can be anonymised | Apr 23 11:39 |
schestowitz | And be pass to the European Commission | Apr 23 11:39 |
schestowitz | They have fined to serve the criminals from Intel shortly. | Apr 23 11:39 |
zer0c00l | schestowitz, i dont have any written proof | Apr 23 11:39 |
zer0c00l | will try to get one | Apr 23 11:39 |
zer0c00l | but he said in our valedictory function | Apr 23 11:40 |
schestowitz | Try getting proof | Apr 23 11:40 |
zer0c00l | "if you won't buy 200 license we will engage anti-piracy operations on your institution " | Apr 23 11:40 |
zer0c00l | ok | Apr 23 11:40 |
zer0c00l | sure i will | Apr 23 11:41 |
schestowitz | Word of mouth is good, but it's better to show something. | Apr 23 11:41 |
schestowitz | zer0c00l: that is extortion | Apr 23 11:41 |
schestowitz | It's illegal | Apr 23 11:41 |
schestowitz | And it's very typical | Apr 23 11:41 |
schestowitz | I heard it before. | Apr 23 11:41 |
zer0c00l | hmm | Apr 23 11:41 |
zer0c00l | bad ms | Apr 23 11:41 |
schestowitz | Anything else you were told? | Apr 23 11:42 |
zer0c00l | no | Apr 23 11:42 |
zer0c00l | i will try to collect for sure | Apr 23 11:42 |
zer0c00l | i raised a question regarding the software usage, | Apr 23 11:42 |
zer0c00l | so he replied back with these answers | Apr 23 11:43 |
zer0c00l | he said we were forced | Apr 23 11:43 |
oiaohm | IBM and Oracle are going to get into a little bit of a fight soon. | Apr 23 11:43 |
schestowitz | Was there illegal use/copies? | Apr 23 11:43 |
zer0c00l | no | Apr 23 11:43 |
schestowitz | I mean, typically there is. | Apr 23 11:43 |
schestowitz | In certain nations it's common | Apr 23 11:43 |
oiaohm | MS is kinda going to find themselves in the middle. | Apr 23 11:43 |
zer0c00l | they are now using some volume licensing | Apr 23 11:43 |
schestowitz | And Microsoft has publicly endorses counterfeiting, so long as people move to another OS | Apr 23 11:43 |
schestowitz | oiaohm: IBM has already manage a new migration route to DB2 | Apr 23 11:44 |
schestowitz | So they don't stand idly. | Apr 23 11:44 |
oiaohm | postgresql vs Mysql | Apr 23 11:44 |
zer0c00l | they paying ms some 1 million yearly | Apr 23 11:44 |
oiaohm | db2 vs orcale. | Apr 23 11:44 |
oiaohm | Let the war being. Last one standing. | Apr 23 11:44 |
oiaohm | Both now make there own servers. | Apr 23 11:45 |
oiaohm | We have not see a hardware maker face off in a long time. | Apr 23 11:45 |
schestowitz | zer0c00l: for how many licences/people? | Apr 23 11:47 |
oiaohm | The fun part by the end of it. Either IBM will aquire Orcale or Orcale will aquire IBM or a draw. | Apr 23 11:47 |
zer0c00l | atleast there will be some 800 computers in the college | Apr 23 11:48 |
schestowitz | oiaohm: their market cap isn't far apart | Apr 23 11:48 |
zer0c00l | they have only 200 licenses | Apr 23 11:48 |
schestowitz | 1 million for 1000 PCs? | Apr 23 11:48 |
zer0c00l | office, visual studio | Apr 23 11:48 |
zer0c00l | it includes | Apr 23 11:48 |
schestowitz | Extra addictives :-) | Apr 23 11:49 |
schestowitz | Get kids to program /for/ Microsoft | Apr 23 11:49 |
zer0c00l | schestowitz, yes thats the plan | Apr 23 11:49 |
schestowitz | And lock their data inside the OOXML capsule that only Microsoft Office can open when they grow up | Apr 23 11:49 |
oiaohm | I have found ms will get quite cheep when you say in a school envorment MS has 2 options 1 software for nothing 2 Linux gets installed everywhere. | Apr 23 11:49 |
schestowitz | zer0c00l: nice company... | Apr 23 11:49 |
zer0c00l | :( | Apr 23 11:49 |
zer0c00l | schestowitz, but the professor has now poised to change the system | Apr 23 11:50 |
oiaohm | Most times MS chooses the cheap licences. | Apr 23 11:50 |
oiaohm | Be away of MS other licencing system. Per student zer0c00l | Apr 23 11:50 |
zer0c00l | he asked me to install GNU/linux in each and every systems | Apr 23 11:50 |
oiaohm | aware | Apr 23 11:50 |
zer0c00l | i have installed 200 systems so far | Apr 23 11:50 |
zer0c00l | just dual booting it | Apr 23 11:50 |
oiaohm | Yep that normal MS threat. | Apr 23 11:50 |
oiaohm | See we have linux here. | Apr 23 11:51 |
schestowitz | oiaohm: yes | Apr 23 11:51 |
zer0c00l | :) | Apr 23 11:51 |
schestowitz | oiaohm: let me find ref | Apr 23 11:51 |
schestowitz | That I found this morning. | Apr 23 11:51 |
schestowitz | "Linux club helps firms hide from Microsoft" | Apr 23 11:51 |
schestowitz | "Local authorities and companies who are interested in ditching their proprietary software in favour of open source are being encouraged to join a confidential scheme that aims to protect them from the attentions of firms such as Microsoft." | Apr 23 11:51 |
schestowitz | "The initiative, called The Incubator Club, is said to be a response to the tactics employed by some major software vendors against firms and organisations who consider using Linux." | Apr 23 11:52 |
schestowitz | "According to Eddie Bleasdale of Netproject, an IT consultancy firm that runs The Incubator Club, Microsoft has repeatedly tried to stop potential Linux migrations — sometimes with notable success." | Apr 23 11:52 |
schestowitz | "“Whenever we’ve gone public about a client moving to Linux, Microsoft has come in and offered remarkable incentives for them to stay as they are,” Bleasdale told the Open Source in Local Government conference in London on Tuesday. " | Apr 23 11:52 |
oiaohm | Per student licencing gets very stupid. | Apr 23 11:52 |
schestowitz | Source: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/sof... | Apr 23 11:52 |
schestowitz | But in this latest case it's extortion | Apr 23 11:52 |
schestowitz | "Pay us for all machines or we sue you" | Apr 23 11:52 |
schestowitz | Microsoft uses patents too now | Apr 23 11:52 |
zer0c00l | schestowitz, yes | Apr 23 11:52 |
schestowitz | The vague patent threats | Apr 23 11:52 |
oiaohm | School with Per student has to pay like 25 dollars per student and you can install as many copies of the software you like. | Apr 23 11:52 |
oiaohm | So much for anti pirate. | Apr 23 11:53 |
schestowitz | So even if you don't have any licensing issues (with Windows) they'll raise Linux-patents issues | Apr 23 11:53 |
schestowitz | Seen before | Apr 23 11:53 |
schestowitz | They use it against large companies | Apr 23 11:53 |
schestowitz | Horacio spoke about it in 2007 | Apr 23 11:53 |
schestowitz | The companies don't want to identify themselves | Apr 23 11:53 |
schestowitz | Those that sell out, that is. | Apr 23 11:53 |
oiaohm | Lot of large companies threaten back. | Apr 23 11:53 |
oiaohm | Its the smaller companies it works on. | Apr 23 11:54 |
*mib_t0pudo (i=c910e07d@gateway/web/ajax/mibbit.com/x-deacd5ba8fb7030e) has joined #boycottnovell | Apr 23 11:54 |
schestowitz | oiaohm: maybe some companies won't bother fighting back | Apr 23 11:54 |
schestowitz | The idea is to make Linux "Scary" | Apr 23 11:54 |
oiaohm | Most large companies have large patents. | Apr 23 11:54 |
schestowitz | So they won't want the trouble and just be swayed into Linux | Apr 23 11:54 |
schestowitz | That's Allison's thesis (or was it gpl-violations') about TomTom | Apr 23 11:54 |
oiaohm | Reason why they hit back they take the point of view MS might anyhow. | Apr 23 11:54 |
oiaohm | For invalid software installs. | Apr 23 11:55 |
oiaohm | So they extract extra moment. | Apr 23 11:55 |
schestowitz | Try to scare device makers who use Linux and don't want to encouter difficulties | Apr 23 11:55 |
oiaohm | MS only try to scare weak looking device makers. | Apr 23 11:56 |
oiaohm | Once that look to have good cash reserves they don't touch. | Apr 23 11:56 |
schestowitz | Layoffs mentioned in mini-msft now: http://minimsft.blogspot.com/200... | Apr 23 11:56 |
schestowitz | oiaohm: yes, TomTom reported bad financial results days before MS sued over FAT | Apr 23 11:56 |
schestowitz | No coincidence IMHO | Apr 23 11:56 |
schestowitz | They use a vulnerable and demoralised company at times when investors put pressure | Apr 23 11:57 |
schestowitz | And OIN has not struck back like it promise | Apr 23 11:57 |
schestowitz | So Microsoft is now going around secretly collecting protection money, saying that TomTom paid, therefore there is no mdeniability | Apr 23 11:57 |
schestowitz | *deniability | Apr 23 11:57 |
oiaohm | There has been a lot of other things going on. | Apr 23 11:58 |
oiaohm | OIN has been sitting back and watching. Lot of .net supporting companies having been jumping ship. | Apr 23 11:59 |
schestowitz | oiaohm: how is this related? | Apr 23 11:59 |
*magentar has quit (Read error: 104 (Connection reset by peer)) | Apr 23 11:59 |
oiaohm | The patent attack on TomTom proved MS patent promise is not worth spit. | Apr 23 12:00 |
oiaohm | So particular .net companies are looking for other solutions like blender. | Apr 23 12:00 |
oiaohm | OIN winning against MS might slow that down. | Apr 23 12:00 |
oiaohm | Yes sometimes it pays to sit back and do nothing and let nature happen. | Apr 23 12:01 |
oiaohm | I really would hate to be in the OIN chair right now trying to pick the best move. | Apr 23 12:02 |
MinceR | it happens too slowly | Apr 23 12:02 |
MinceR | m$ should be killed quickly. | Apr 23 12:02 |
oiaohm | Patent attacking MS now would not be sure to kill them quickly either. | Apr 23 12:02 |
oiaohm | They have enough money still to draw it out. | Apr 23 12:02 |
oiaohm | Yet there money reports say they are in a down wards spirle. | Apr 23 12:03 |
oiaohm | Rule of business if a tactic has worked well copy it. | Apr 23 12:03 |
schestowitz | brb | Apr 23 12:04 |
oiaohm | MinceR: the hard thing is picking the right point to hit MS at its weakest. | Apr 23 12:05 |
oiaohm | Great MS is delaying it must not be good. After the close of trade they will release the 3Q. | Apr 23 12:08 |
oiaohm | If its good you normally release it at the start of trade to make stock trade high. | Apr 23 12:08 |
schestowitz | oiaohm: I don't agree | Apr 23 12:09 |
schestowitz | Also, Ubuntu 9.04 has just been officially release | Apr 23 12:09 |
schestowitz | Microsoft will do more damage unless it's clipped now | Apr 23 12:09 |
schestowitz | European Commission need to intervene too | Apr 23 12:10 |
schestowitz | For all I can gather, Microsoft is now more aggressive then ever | Apr 23 12:10 |
In additon, below we append an E-mail that shows the very same victim being pressured to pay for software 'upgrades' (some people consider them downgrades).