[cosine]

Wow, such purity! Do you put companies who offer free samples at grocery stores, in the newspaper, and at various events in the same category?

Plus you apparently find Microsoft products addictive. They're that good? Really?

[Blood of Tyrants]

The free software are available free to EVERYONE. Not free to some people and $500 to others. I agree with the government, this is clearly a possible ethics violation.

[Blood of Tyrants]

The free software at the grocery store checkout are available free to EVERYONE. Not free to some people and $500 to others. I agree with the government, this is clearly a possible ethics violation.

[coloradan]

1. Grocery stores don't give food away to government agents hoping to shape legislation or purchase decisions regarding same. Can you make the same claim about Microsoft software, especially in light of the stated intention of the agencies to consider open source solutions?

2. Addictive != good.

[cc2k]

cosine wrote:

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Do you put companies who offer free samples at grocery stores, in the newspaper, and at various events in the same category?

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That depends on what products they are offering as samples. Are we talking about dish detergent? Candy bars? Or cigarettes?

cosine wrote:

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Plus you apparently find Microsoft products addictive. They're that good? Really?

---

Addictive might be the wrong term. But from a technical standpoint, there is a very similar situation. Once you install some of these "samples," it can be very difficult to remove the "sample" and restore your computer to the state it was in before you tried the sample. It's not always easy to go back to where you were before.

I don't know specifically about this Office 2003 package, but that is certainly true from some of the "evaluation" software that I've experienced in the past.

[glorgau]

Does this mean that DOD employees will have to return the free AOL discs that they get? :-)

[jammer]

Do you put companies who offer free samples at grocery stores, in the newspaper, and at various events in the same category?

Not analagous. If a company offers me a free sample at a grocery store to try to entice me, I will be spending MY money. I won't be spending someone else's money, either my employer's or money taken from taxpayers.

To anticipate another question, I work in an industry where sampling, meals, and many other gifts are rampant. And my employees know that even taking a meal will result in their being fired.

[N3WBI3]

Does eating a snack make my wifes food not work? Does she have to upgrade to "Jims Smoked Sausage" in order to talk with me? If this was MS sending to home users, fine NP. But MS knows home users will get the OEM version when they buy a new PC if they can get just one important person in an organization they can force an upgrade which is unneeded.

Lets face it pointy haired bosses are pretty easy to impress with a UI, and 'feature' upgrade...