Proposed Microsoft Civil Suit Settlement

C|Net reports on a proposed Microsoft civil suit settlement that involves giving a bunch of free software to schools. You’ve gotta be kidding. I think the Red Hat CEO summed it up well:

“While we applaud Microsoft for raising the idea of helping poorer schools as part of the penalty phase of their conviction for monopolistic practices, we do not think that the remedy should be a mechanism by which Microsoft can further extend its monopoly,” Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik said in a statement.

Not to mention that Microsoft’s margins are quite high, which means that they can bandy about numbers that seem large, but are acquired at a great discount. Not to mention that the numbers would have to be much larger than $500M-1B to even make a dent in the $36B cash pile that Microsoft has built up via its monopoly. (No, I’m not saying that all or even a majority of that cash should be taken away… I’m just saying you’ve got to be realistic.)