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Microsoft aims to reach next billion PC users

The software maker will offer the $3 Student Innovation Suite to governments that agree to directly purchase PCs for students to use in their schoolwork and at home. Gates plans to announce the program at a company-sponsored forum for government leaders.

The collection of software, which will start shipping in the second half of this year, includes Windows XP Starter Edition, Office Home and Student 2007, Windows Live Mail Desktop and several educational products. The $3 price includes the software license, while backup discs and documentation will cost extra. In order to be eligible, governments must pick up at least half the tab for the PC, though the software can also be used on refurbished computers, which can cost as little as $50, Microsoft said.

Good. It's already expensive enough for students as it is.

No, not good.

It's just yet another way for MS to monopolise the market with their now-obsolete (according to them) operating system.

As good as it is to have schools with computers for kids, etc, it would be better if they didn't come packed with proprietry software, most of which wouldn't even be considered a sellable product in any other industry...

Such is Life.

Here's the other problem. I work as a network systems technician for a school district, and I am involved with every aspect of computers from hardware to software.

When our school buys computer systems, the cost of the OEM install of Windows XP Pro with licensed is included in the price of the system. But, since we must be able to GHOST (copying the entire hard drive) for multiple installs (mass Roll-outs) of computers of the same model (say a lab for instance). We can't use the OEM Windows Xp with license, because of the anti piracy and authenticity scheme.

So we have to pay for Corporate Edition & licensing for each system. That allows us to use the same key, for the roll-outs. So we are already paying double. Microsoft offering the Starter Edition for $3 isn't going to help us at all, and it isn't going to cost them any money either.

Nevermind the Additional cost of licensing servers (where the real moner is). We have a heterogenous network built on Linux, Novell, and Microsoft. Guess which licensing costs the most?

Add to it, that Microsoft purposely creates problems for heterogenous networks with nearly every service pack. They keep these details away from other companies, in hopes that you'll grow so frustrated that you will decide to go Microsoft-only. Which would cost us more money, in hardware & licensing.

While I'd love to chuck MS completely, I can't. See MS is very clever in bullying/bribing vendors of other products, to mainly produce MS server only products. For instance, the School Database that handles everything from scheduling to grades, to medical history, etc.. recently went Microsoft ONLY. With the amount of time, resources, training, & money, we have spent implementing this product, we are now in a position of being married to Microsoft.

But Microsofts built-in thin clien/terminal services is lackluster to say the least. And although they (MS), and the database company state that the software will function across our WAN (fiber) and be able to also service WirelessG clients; I sadly report that this is not the case. It was constantly locking up and crashing, even with the aid of on-site MS support.

So the answer. Citrix Metaframe installed on top of Windows 2003 advanced server, to get the thin client performance we need (and MS claimed they provide out of the box). This all adds up to a lot of money in Citrix Licensing.

Other companies have bailed on us too. I used to run a Linux Symantec Antivirs Console server. Unfortunately a few years back Symantec only provides support for Windows-based server installs of the Console suite. And of course makes it easier in a Windows install to obtain updates, and schedule Deployments to other symantec AV servers and monitoring of clients.

I still mainly utilizw EDirectory (Novell) and am completely happy with my Zen Tree. All user accounts, printer services, security, backup recovery etc... is handled by my Novell servers. Even authentication to the windows servers/Citrix boxes is done through Dynamic Local User from Novell authentication. Beautful right? Well it was, but unfortunately....

Microsoft loves to make it difficult for Zenworks to manage Windows XP Client Desktop security. They do everything possible to try to force my hand in using Active Directory and Windows servers to control client behaviour. I swear every large update or service pack, goes out of it's way to break Zenworks policies from monitoring the clients. So I cringe at every anytime MS trys to prompt me to have automatic updates enabled. Yeah right MS, why? So I can find my entire network in complete ruin. Thanks to VMware, & Zenworks, I can safely test each and every update in a virtual environment, before deploying it out to several thousand systems.

Don't even get me started on Vista, or Windows Firewall.

I have set up a couple of Suse linux setups in the media center. These computers have better software ouit-of-the box than any of our other computers. Everything from "The Gimp", to "Blender", and 1000's of other office and multimedia apps, better web browsing, better security. All of this for a fraction of the cost. The only reason I can't go completely Linux is, the district comes down hard on me if I don't utilize the MicroSoft licensing deal, and a few other apps that are MS only. To be honest there is better stuff out for Linux, but try to convinve the administrators and teaching faculty. They won't go near the linux boxes, but the students.... which computer do they flock to?

Unfortunately schools systems are plagued by the habits of the Old Guard. They have been so scared to tamper with anything (from experiences with MS products) that they now can't see and don't believe that computing and networking can be less eventful. They rather stick with Old rusty (unreliable). I think that has been MS's best marketing over the years. Dole out such complete un-reliable stuff, so that people truly believe that this is the way computers are meant to be. And even though it's their OS that is causing the problem, people look to them to change it.

Well that's my rant.

And btw, yes I run a dual boot OS. I actually chucked MS for a few months (almost a year). I went completely linux and OpenGl. The only reason I re-installed Windows.... DarkBasic Pro!

If you've taken IT at any sort of compulsary level, you'll know that even though they claim not to be, everything is edged towards Windows and Microsoft products.

There's no point using Linux, Open Office or anything like that to power the machines, as it'll just cause confusion in the teaching of a completely different suite to that which the course was designed for.

The kids at home are hardly likely to run an alternative-OS at home, so what's the point in purposfully using non-Microsoft products in school that will just introduce confusion, compatibility problems and just slow people down.

i dont rilly care witch os i use becose i basicly only use blender. i beleve in open scorce softwere, not huge companys who charge far to mutch for uslsess softwere.

take blender as a example, to get a comersal program with all the fetures of blender costs 2000 or more!im not suprised that sener schools dont teach 3dcg! this is a shame as its actualy verry easy.

windose has just been going downhill scince win 98. all the newer versons are full of useless programs, and ugly, pointless eyecandy

Nice to hear your thoughts, Zen. 'twas a good read

Nem,
But the thing is, there's not that much of a difference.
And, if you can catch them while they're still kids, they'll pick it up faster than you can say "Linux is free".

For example, I run OpenOffice on this PC since I can't afford an MS Office suit (I think I have 97 somewhere... Ha!).
The only difference between MS Office 2007 and Open Office, is a) the naming of some menu items and b) ... Well, there isn't a b)!

Honestly, it was a pick-up-and-go afair for me, and I haven't looked back, or even bothered to look to another product.
And, to be honest, I've found my productivity in Open Office increased, as certain options are available at top-level menu's rather than hidden beneith layers of menus and dialog boxes.

[EDIT]
I also Dual Boot with Ubuntu.
I'd use Ubuntu exclusively but unfortunatly I need DX, MSVS (for Uni work) & DBP to be able to run.

Otherwise, I would do all browsing, word processing, and DS programming in Ubuntu and not look to Windows at all
[/EDIT]

I actually used to use Open Office (to replace MS Word - none of the other Office Apps) before I found out that the compatibility between OO and Office 2003 is actually really pathetic, despite how much of a deal they make about it. The amount of times I've saved a document only to find out it appears completely different when I come to primt it in school. I have to say though, there's nothing wrong with it apart from that, though I think the new features in Office 2007, combined with the new efficient and dare I say more productive menu system, I don't think I'll be using OO anymore.

I agree with you Jess T, I'm sure kids would pick up the basics of Linux pretty quickly if it was used primarily, but since when have you heard of a kid using a PC just for word processing? Things like gaming are all designed for Windows... out of the box, ready to go, don't have to fuss around with graphics drivers, emulation or getting a simple games controller to work.


Which can all, quite easily, be removed or disabled.


If it's useless software, I can't see the price of it being a huge concern of yours too much. I mean, why would you buy software you think is useless?

I indeed too use Ubuntu on my laptop and if Windows had reasonable wifi drivers, I'd not look at Linux at all. Each to their own.

i dont buy usless softwere, microsoft are forcing usless softwere on people.

i think children should be torght linnux so that thay lern abit of programming, and lern more about how computers work. insted of being forced to do usless it lessons that teatch absoultly nothing exept for microsoft ofice. this is how things seem in the uk anyway.

i intend to lern linnux and swixch to open scose soon.