“The University wasted a whopping $2.7 million recently by
purchasing licenses of Microsoft Office and Windows XP Pro for each
registered student as Don Parris pointed out in his Sept. 15
letter. The opportunity existed for the University to distribute
free software which would have liberated students from the endless
cycle of increasingly expensive upgrades of proprietary software,
but they chose not to take advantage of the deal. This problem is
hardly limited to this particular university and is even becoming
an issue in international development. Fortunately, however, there
is recourse for individuals who do not want to fund near-monopolies
like Microsoft…”