[NBLUG/talk] Re: [Balug-talk] Californians can get $$$ from MS in class action settlement

[Roger Chrisman]

On Thursday 26 February 2004 10:35, Jed Donnelley wrote:
> Before anybody get's too excited, I think it's important to point
> out that all you really have the opportunity to get is $100 credit
> towards the purchase of future Microsoft software, not cash.

I read the legal documentation and believe the above to be the likely average 
real outcome of how most people will use the vouchers. And for this reason I 
find the settlement agreement, and in an IT state, too, to be extreamely 
insulting.

However, the settlement's proposed vouchers themselves DO NOT designate what 
brandname of software or hardware they be used to buy. *Someone* inclined to 
do so could,
1) buy hardware from Apple,
or
2) buy hardware that does not come bundled with any Microsoft OS or software 
*and* spend the requisite time it takes to learn how to install and use 
Linux. Discretionary time most Californians simply *do not have*.
3) buy non-Microsoft brand software and run it on Linux.

The *infuriating insult* of the settlement is that it, *if I remember 
correctly* and I might not, does not allow the vouchers to be used for 
purchasing IT consulting services which really the average computer consumer 
needs to buy if he wants to get Linux running without spending a great deal 
of his time on figuring Linux out.

I am insulted and disgusted with the settlement. Rather than curtail 
Microsoft's monopoly it simply strengthens it. Not justice. Not helpful. Not 
right.

It makes an insulting charade of California and our legal system.

Angry Californian (and Linux user),

Roger