The NSW Government is considering putting Linux on the laptops for students as a part of the Rudd Government’s “Education Revolution” plan. Good idea!
But you know what will happen, Microsoft will step in and offer XP and Office for cheap (or perhaps even FREE), in order to stop Linux from gaining any momentum in the market. They will also offer discounts to NSW Government Departments on their Microsoft products, if they don’t adopt Linux on these notebooks.
The Victorian Government struck such a deal and as a result, laptops with Windows are cheaper than the Linux version – which comes with a free operating system!
How do you complete with that?
3 thoughts on “How to compete with free”
You expose the fraud & dishonesty behind the opposing offers.
This has two obvious positive effects:
[1] it shows other suckers what lies in wait for them if they are stupid enough to accept the Victim role;
[2] it enables the wheels of justice to grind (albeit ever so slowly), conceptually destroying the lazy/stupid/bribed not-so-public faux-servants who instantiated such problems.
If both are free, it should come down to best value proposition!
Yes, I wonder whether it borders on breaking some fair competition laws or something. Maybe ACCC should look into it.