Microsoft attempts to head Linux off at the pricing gulch

MSNBC -- a joint venture of Microsoft and US TV network NBC -- has a story claiming that Microsoft will be prepared to go easier with customers who previously refrained from signing up for Licensing 6.0.

Microsoft hopes to forestall defections to Linux with this programme.

It admits that Licensing 6.0 takeup wasn't anywhere near the anticipated levels last summer. As much as two-thirds of Microsoft's customer base refused to sign for two or three-year "Software Assurance" contracts.

Those are software subscription schemes that don't really promise future upgrades. All they "assure" is that Microsoft might answer the phones at their help desk (likely somewhere in India) but not that they'll provide any real assistance or software patches... much less version updates.

So Microsoft is magnanimously offering to allow small business customers to pay as they go. Customers will still be obligated to the entire three years' subscriptions for Microsoft software but can pay in installments. The Vole, with characteristic smarmy cynicism, calls it "Open Value".

They're trying to twist the word "open" -- much as they've already done with the word "innovation" in the IT industry -- and in my opinion this is a despicable trick.

Microsoft is offering zero interest financing until January 31, 2003. It is a great deal -- for Microsoft: a guaranteed future revenue stream and customer lock-in for three years, with no obligations on its behalf.

Hopefully customers who weren't dumb enough to sign up for Licensing 6.0 will also be smart enough to reject this attempt by Microsoft to extract continuing payments for no discernable value. One imagines they will.

If Microsoft really wants to compete with Linux and other Free and Open Source software, they're going to have to do much better than cynically tagging one-sided marketing initiatives (that only benefit them at their customers expense) with labels like "Open" or "Shared" this or that.

No, the Vole can't win by pretending that lead is gold. To compete with Linux, Apache, etc., Microsoft would have to do the following things:

* Offer all its products for download, free of charge, over the 'net.
* Provide the source to all its software free of charge to all users.
* Explicitly empower users to read, modify and redistribute the code.

But Microsoft won't ever do those things. It just seems to merely bend the words.

The MSNBC story is here. µ