[brlug-poly] M$ Spams Free Speech Alley.

[Brad Bendily]

> 
> The tech fee is small next to LSU's budget and won't solve larger problems, 
> but I'd like to see it put to better use.  

I've not been really sure where to stick this in, but about 6-7 years ago
the powers that be at SLU decided that the exact same deal
on our campus was not a benefit. We are a lot better off buying
a separate copy for every machine than forming that software 
contract.
I think part of the problem
was that the administration/faculty/staff HAD to buy in first
then the students had the option for some dollar amount. I can't
remember the specifics, but being on the Tech Fee Committee I was
sure that we would get a raw deal. Right now, as Will pointed
out, we buy computers with the OS, no need to pay for that again.
And it cost the university around $35 for the Office suite.
on each computer. 
So, all the labs have the office suite and so does all faculty/staff.
And all computers have the OS that was bought with their
computer. To purchase XP outright is pretty cheap too.

A while back ray worked up a list of OSS that showed a cost
comparison and how much OSS saved the the university. Shortly
after Firefox and OpenOffice were mandated to be installed 
on every computer, alongside of the MS Office suite. At this
point students are on there own at home. My personal opinion
is that MS should give the software out to free for students
any way. What better way to get them on your side, give it
for free while they're students and then when they get real
jobs they won't know any better and will continue to pay for
the software. I think our CS department has some sweet deal
worked out for the VB and .NET compilers. I don't know
the details of that, but I think anyone who wants one can
get a copy of that software for free. As long as they're
students or faculty.