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Microsoft has its own fund for suppressing Linux and avoiding free competition. It is called EDGI and its purpose is to undermine competition with prices. This enables Microsoft to give away their software wherever Linux is an alternative and secure future market shares.
We all know how they pressure computer manufacturers with their big market share. This takes care of the producing end but not of the troublesome customer side. So In addition to that they have the “Education and Government Incentives program” EDGI.

EDGI is both a strategy and a financing fund to fight the choice of Linux (in particular, and other cheap alternatives in general) in the public sector and in the emerging markets.
Whenever Microsoft is about to loose a customer like that the sales personal can apply to use the fund:

EDGI is a customer-focused program that is for circumstances (like the one you reference) where an education and/or government customer is going to puchase naked PC’s or PC’s w/Linux. IF we do everything possible and it still comes down to price differential between the Windows PC’s and Linux PC’s, then we can invest some/all of the royalty revenue from the deal back to the customer in the form of training, services, or even rebates. For more detail see that attached and let me know if you want to chat before your call. Note: This is not a partner program and is MS-internal only.

And here is the proof. Now you could argue that this is not new:
Microsoft trying to pull an EDGI on Kerala?

But I will regard it as ongoing news until the proper antitrust authorities do their job and stop this illegal attempt to avoid fair competition.
No matter what charities and nice activities they are involved in - this is and stays illegal in most countries.
To be fair; Microsoft has had its fair share of trouble with antitrust authorities but they have been able to handle it out of court faster than you can spell Apfelstrudel.
You can do that if you have a lot of money and that is bad for the competition, making you and me the victims of high prices.
They also have the convenient patent suing war arsenal that will be used against anyone complaining.

In short Microsoft is using its considerable size to undermine fair competition regarding price and quality.
And yes we all knew that - but new details are turning up every day.
I would gladly pay for a superior product of my choice but that is taken away from me. Now an inferior (IMHO) OS is forced on me in almost every store in the world despite the fact that I do not want it. Refund you say? No in that case Microsoft is free (hence the fund?) so you will get a refund of 0 - zero.

It is like having the Bed sales man forcing you to buy a pillow. If you have a bed you need it right?

And they want me to agree to those bastards working on the kernel???

To make you feel better you should regard it as torture for Microsoft. They do not like it - they just have to.

The MS CIA?

viking60 wrote:Microsoft has its own fund for suppressing Linux and avoiding free competition.[..]
And here is the proof. [..]

I took some of my precious time to scan that pdf. Very informative post, there.

Yes I just read it again and I get p...ed every time. The only positvie thing here is that Microsoft realizes that Linux is cheaper (must be the confidential part ) and has a fund to push Windows - at any cost - to avoid competition from Linux.
There can be no doubt that they are truly scared of Linux. And it is kind of a shot in the foot to their massive "Linux is more expensive than Windows" campaign. It is only true after they have subsidized it, because there was a better alternative.
Entering like that after the deal is done is illegal. And doing it during the process is most likely illegal too.
Are we competing with Linux? Then Windows is free! Boy those OEMs delivering Windows boxes sure have a lot to thank Linux for.
And it is really annoying that they get away with it. Any other company probably would not.