On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 03:55:04PM -0400, Jeremiah Foster wrote:
>
> On Oct 21, 2010, at 15:43, Roland Hedayat wrote:
>
> > It is a pity that such bravery is totally lacking in
> > the public administration here, arguably one of the
> > best marketplaces of M$ worldwide. And
> > Konkurrensverket, the "Swedish Competition Authority"
> > continues chasing "asphalt" cartels or whoever else...
> I find this shocking as well. I don't understand why
> Sweden, of all countries, is so Microsoft
> centric. Other European countries - even our rich
> neighbor Norway - have more Linux deployments.
Norway is also heavily penetrated by M$, although
less. But one important reason for the extremely high
penetration in Sweden/Norway is that they both had what
was called 'the home computer agreement' ('hem PC
avtalet') allowing tax deduction on hardware and
software purchases to private consumers under certain
circumstances. Since (practically) all computers had
Windows on board (no tender here, the operating system
was considered coming from some higher, unquestionable
power) this was equivalent to a huge subsidy on M$
products - giving them an upper hand severely raising
the "barrier to entry" for other actors, and free
software in particular.
> Gnutiken, a Free Software economic cooperative
> (handelsbolag) in Gothenburg has been approached by
> school teachers looking for decent, inexpensive
> software for their students. Every time a discussion
> like this occurs, the teacher goes away from Gnutiken
> excited by the many possibilities that Free Software
> has to offer their students. Once they discuss the
> purchase of services from Gnutiken or even getting
> software online for free, they are invariably told
> that under no circumstances are they allowed to
> install Free Software on the school's computers. This
> would make Microsoft upset and they'd stop giving
> deep discounts.
> This is an appalling practice that makes Swedes pay
> more for inferior software and robs the school budget
> for more pressing needs than crappy junkware from
> some American monopoly. Sadly, lobbies are extremely
> effective and the result of their work in Sweden can
> be seen on many desktops.
Well, referring to my previous post, price manipulation
and threats, these are well-known "drug-dealer"
practices, aren't they?
But again: Where is Konkurrensverket?
/Roland
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Received on 2010-10-21