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On Wed, 2008-09-10 at 06:30 +0100, Adam Latham wrote: > The response I got from the school to my polite request to possibly > 'sponsoring' the cost of some OpenCD's to give out, or advertising the SFD > was: > > 'We are committed to becoming a business and enterprise Microsoft user. > We see no reason to promote the use of untested software that comes with > no warranty as to its suitability for use.' Obviously never read a Microsoft EULA then have they! I think you need to reply with some examples of schools using free software, facts about software warranties that only warrant that the software is not under warranty and not guaranteed to be suitable for any purpose. "Limited warranty for software acquired in the US or Canada" http://dailycupoftech.com/2008/05/21/ms-eula-in-plain-english/ Even that is limited to 90 days, only applies to the unpatched OS and is invalid in some US states anyway. In precisely the same manner as Microsoft, the FSF, Debian and anyone else will gladly refund the purchase price of your free software should problems occur. In precisely the same manner as Microsoft, no-one is entitled to damages including but not limited to consequential damages ... even if any remedy fails of its essential purpose. In precisely the same manner as Microsoft, the entire liability from all circumstances (whether known or unknown) will never exceed the purchase price of the software. (So the cheaper you get it, the less the liability; clever that one - those with the biggest discounts get the least cover.) Microsofts entire liability for the warranty is a refund - we offer that too. "Microsoft and its suppliers provide the Software and support services (if any) AS IS AND WITH ALL FAULTS, and hereby disclaim all other warranties and conditions, whether express, implied or statutory. ... TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL MICROSOFT OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES WHATSOEVER." That looks remarkably similar to the GPL warranty statement. # This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, # but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of # MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the # GNU General Public License for more details. > Whilst I personally consider the statement just a tad on the comical side > (e.g. the world renowned lack of fitness for purpose of a lot of > commercial products!) I fear that this is the brainless approach that we > will be up against. It is something that FSF have seen before and beaten before. Assemble the facts, present your case and clear up the misconceptions. > Schools get massively reduced rates on M$ products, and then spend masses > of cash on making them work on the rather tired hardware we use. Case in > point.. a network M$ Office 2007 installation on a Celeron 1.8Ghz 512Mb > Ram desktop took nearly 2 1/2 hours!. I can offer anyone a global 100000000000000000000000000000000000% reduction on the purchase price of Debian, right here and now. This offer is valid in perpetuity to all users from all countries without discrimination, prejudice or merit. Furthermore, this discount is available to all resellers of Debian in perpetuity and without limit. This offer is valid in all countries, states and communities, even to the ISS. If you can obtain Debian, you are entitled to this offer, even if you are not actually on this planet. If anything goes wrong or if you are at all dissatisfied in even the most trivial way, you are entitled to an immediate and full refund of the original purchase price, before the discount was applied. Beat that, Microsoft. -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.data-freedom.org/ http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/ http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/
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