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Mar. 30 1998
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    Taking Over IU, Saving You Money & Free The Code!
< In yet another attempt to take control of the US Educational System, Microsoft and Indiana University announced a deal this week making The Behemoth exclusive provider of software for IU until 2002. The $6 million deal would make Ms' most popular software titles available for free to the school's 100,000 students and faculty. IU VP for Information Technology Michael McRobbie stressed that the deal isn't totally exclusive, saying that individual students or departments can use their own money to buy other software products, but analysts and many students are worried that the exact opposite will end up happening. "I think it is, in the long run, going to be really bad for diversity and choice of software and operating systems," said one IU computer science student.
His feelings were echoed by many on and off Indiana University campuses, as university newsgroups are being deluged by anti-IU-Ms messages and protests are currently being planned. Veteran Microsoft opponent & NetAction Program Director Nathan Newman also expressed doubts about the deal, comparing it to the short-lived but highly controversial CETI deal between Microsoft and CSU (see last week's NewsSource). Let's hope this agreement lasts as long as that one did.

In response to this news, The MSBC has started an Anti-IU-Microsoft Petition. To help us fight Microsoft's takeover of the world's educational institutions, click here and sign the petition.

< In a letter sent Friday, US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch asked Microsoft, Netscape and Sun to make it easier for the committee to investigate antitrust charges against Microsoft. The investigation has been held up by "non-disclosure agreements" between the companies and their customers, which require the customers to notify the companies before releasing any confidential business information, even to government investigators. Senator Hatch (R Utah) asked the companies to send letters to their customers and business partners (similar to ones sent out for the Justice Department) allowing them to talk freely with senate investigators.
Netscape responded immediately, saying that the company would "absolutely" comply with the congressional request. Microsoft spokesmen Jim Cullinan stated that his company would release any information investigators need, but couldn't say for sure if Ms would agree to the request in writing as the senators asked because of "the need to protect our trade secrets and confidential information." Representatives for Sun have yet to publically comment on the requests.

< In yet another attempt to save us all money when buying a computer, The Behemoth is offering OEMs a cash incentive to install expensive TV tuner cards in PCs. Ms is encouraging widespread adoption of the cards by offering a cash rebate to OEMs if they install TV tuners into at least 15 percent of their systems by this July. This benefits Microsoft by laying the foundations for television/computer integration, which is what most Ms products are leading up to now anyway. It also justifies Windows 98's built-in TV tuner card support.
Giving rebates or discounts to OEMs and retailers is nothing new to Microsoft. They commonly give computer manufacturers discounts on software in exchange for supporting Ms' PC standards or putting the Windows logo on their machines. The Behemoth also gives money to retailers for each piece of hardware or software sold with the "Designed for Microsoft Windows" logo on it.

< BRIEFLY: On Tuesday Microsoft posted a new WYSIWYG Dynamic-HTML editing tool on their website for preview download. The new tool works with Visual Basic, JScript, Visual C and Visual C++, and will be incorporated into future versions of Outlook Express, Visual InterDev and Visual J--.
Also on Tuesday, Microsoft's sworn enemy Netscape began giving away the source code for its next internet browser, Communicator 5.0 (expected to be available late this year). The company hopes that letting private devlopers work on the product will improve their slipping market share and increase traffic to its web site. The code is available from www.mozilla.org.

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