[ale] Re: Dan Gillmor on Microsoft

[Sean Kilpatrick]

Jim wrote:


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>Microsoft is reporting record profits from the last quarter, which they 
>attribute largely to their new, extortionary licensing scheme. I thought 
>htese words from Silicon Valley columnist Dan Gillmor were worth sharing 
>with everybody on the list:


Actually this is not _exactly_ as it seems.  Microsoft, in its announcement
was trying to warn investors that this sudden spike in the cash flow is
a "one time" event and is caused by thousands of businesses refusing to go
along with M$ new licensing fees and instead purchasing standard support
contracts through the life of the OS they are currently using.  Apparently
M$ new licensing scheme of paying in advance for non-existent and 
unannounced updates is a major grade flop.  All sorts of medium sized
businesses have said "NO!" By purchasing their support contracts _before_
July 31 businesses were able to avoid the price hikes and avoid paying
for vaporware.
So this spike in the cash flow is actually somewhat worrying for Bill.

Sean




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