Australian Financial Review: Angry Microsoft Clients Looking at Linux to Get Even

“The clock is ticking for companies to comply with Microsoft
Corp’s new software-pricing policy, a plan criticised for raising
customers’ software costs while helping Microsoft’s bottom
line.

“Microsoft’s new policy, to take effect on July 31, does away
with many long-time discounts and encourages corporations to sign
up for automatic upgrades to new products. The plan varies
according to factors such as a company’s size and the products they
use. In general, large firms already signed up for
subscription-like plans face fewer changes than smaller
clients.

“Because of expected price increases, some long-time customers
are considering competing products such as the Linux operating
system and Sun Microsystems Inc’s StarOffice, which competes with
Microsoft’s ubiquitous Office suite of programs…”

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