Microsoft, Mississippi settle Windows suit
Microsoft and the state of Mississippi said Thursday that they have reached a settlement in a class-action suit over the pricing of Windows and Office. Under the terms of the deal, Microsoft will pay $40 million to the state and up to $60 million in vouchers to consumers, businesses, schools, and local governments.
The deal is similar to the many settlements that Microsoft struck with states in years past.
Those in Mississippi who purchased Microsoft products or computers containing Microsoft products between January 1, 1996, and Thursday will be eligible to receive a voucher of $12 or $5, depending on which products were purchased. The vouchers can be used toward the purchase of any software or hardware product.
Products eligible for the $12 vouchers include three older Windows versions--Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows ME. Among those that qualify for the $5 vouchers are Office (or components such as Word and Excel), MS-DOS, Windows 1.xx-3.xx Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT Workstation, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
If not all the vouchers are claimed, Microsoft will pay up to an additional $8 million to the state.
"Microsoft is pleased to reach this resolution with the State of Mississippi and with our customers in Mississippi," said Steve Aeschbacher, Microsoft associate general counsel. "We look forward to working with the state on issues of mutual concern going forward."
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
It sounds perfectly reasonable, right?
I remember reading about the case when it first when public. $40 million for a company like Microsoft is a slap on the wrist (especially when it means $12 rebates). $400 million would be a penalty that they'd actually feel and would mean more money in those end user's pockets and actually help the state of Mississippi a greater amount.
"$400 million would be a penalty that they'd actually feel and would mean more money in those end user's pockets and actually help the state of Mississippi a greater amount. "
Point of order here.
In order for you to make your claim to get paid, you'll need to provide your proof of purchase indicating you did indeed buy the product in the state of Mississsippi during the affected period of time. If you have that sales receipt, then you're good. If you have since thrown out this receipt from 5-8 years ago on a system you likey don't even have around anymore, then you cannot file a claim for the money at all.
Very little of any of these class action lawsuits results in real money being handed out. The lawyers get paid first, then they set up the agency to dispense the refunds- but only after agency costs are covered. By the time you are done, little if any, has actually been paid out.
This is very common in the legal arena. It's not Microsoft's call either- this is all the legal system in effect.
The problem with blanket statements like that is that they just don't work when you actually start thinking the concept through to the conclusion. It sounds like and righteous, but fail in process.
commuinity is spelt with one less 'i'.....Community. Maybe you should start using spell checker in your version of MAC Office
urs trewly
ill itter hate win user
Any IT professional worth his salt would be able to migrate to Linux without any major difficulties. And the terminal isn't necessary for most installations. It might be necessary for some server set up however, I admit. But once again, if they are worth their salary, no problem.
@Vega,
Keep on reading between the lines and nitpicking, it's what you're best at.
"Keep on reading between the lines and nitpicking, it's what you're best at. "
Well, if you don't want people to read your comments or respond to them, there's a simple solution- don't comment.
I expect people to read what I wrote, not try to put words into my mouth. That's what you are doing. I shall now attempt to annoy you like the buzzing insect you are. If I don't, I will undoubtedly say something that will invoke the ire of the editors.
Hardware support is better (I have an old, but functional scanner that absolutely doesn't work with Vista - the company that made it is out of business - it works under Ubuntu though), installation consists of clicking next a few times and typing in your name, etc. Vista installation is much better than XP, but still much worse than most linux distros. Plus you can surf the web, IM friends, etc while installing linux.
In fact, on a clean install I can create text documents and pdf's with OpenOffice, graphics with Gimp, etc. Of course Windows has notepad and paint...
Oh, and my brand new Gagabyte GA-MA790GP-UD4H motherboard doesn't have NIC drivers built in on Vista, and XP doesn't even see the hard drives unless I slipstream text-mode SATA drivers in my install disk, which is FAR FAR FAR harder than any text-based linux program install (which is never needed under pretty much any normal circumstances). Let me tell you, it's super fun installing Vista on a brand new computer, then realizing that crappy Windows doesn't have drivers for extremely common hardware (like my Realtek NIC), and finding out you can't go online and download them since you, well, don't have NIC drivers.
Now your just kidding yourself.
You pick one printer and that automatically voids all the hardware that Linux won't work with?
Look Vista will install drivers for many devices with no connection to the internet wasn't my experience with windows.
More user friendly? How so? Why is it that I have to type the file name of a program to install many programs for linux?
"In fact, on a clean install I can create text documents and pdf's with OpenOffice, graphics with Gimp, etc. Of course Windows has notepad and paint..."
When I installed Ubuntu I had to install those programs they weren't already installed. And I can get those same exact programs for Windows. Btw photoshop is where its at not gimp.
A brand new Gigabyte motherboard not having XP and Vista drivers but working fine in Linux sorry I find that hard to believe and the disc that doesn't come with the motherboard doesn't have drivers either?
Hardware support on recent Linux (Ubuntu) systems from my experience is far better than any windows system (95, 98, ME, XP, and Vista) I have used so far. I don't need device drivers for my printers, phones, Camera etc. . I just plug and play.
And as for work, I develop applications using Netbeans or Eclipse as well as Dreaweaver using wine. For office productivity, OpenOffice is more than capable.
Hardware support is better?
Now your just kidding yourself.
You pick one printer and that automatically voids all the hardware that Linux won't work with?"
monkeyfun14-He said "scanner". S-C-A-N-N-E-R. Scanner. Other than that, I actually agree with you. Linux has some plusses, but overall it is still not very people friendly to the novice user. It has made strides, but it does not compare to OS X or Windows, when it is all said and done.
BTW, Q was a cool movie back then. I still remember the bikini girl sunbathing on the roof just before that thing got her. :-)
As to the lawsuit, MS sued MS (you figure out which is which) in 2004, claiming that anti-competitive practices by MS resulted in people paying more for software than they would have otherwise. This was one of several similar suits filed by states. As I don't use MS Office (the principal "offender"), I won't be getting a voucher. Poor lil ol' me...
That was un-called for. While I'm not a native of Mississippi, I certainly see the insult in that and I'm sure other do too. Back off, Yankee! ;-)
I honestly don't know how you can think that copy-paste of a few words of text into a terminal and hit enter is somehow harder than clicking on a link to a download site, downloading some random setup.exe file, browsing to where you saved it (sadly not an easy feat for some users), double-click it and accept whatever stupid license agreement it has. Then click next a ton of times, remember to UNCHECK all the of "install spyware toolbar for internet explorer, then finally install the program. Get in too much of a rush and presto! you have yet another stupid spyware toolbar installed. I do part time at-home support, and the average number of IE (and firefox) toolbars is at least 4. I've seen IE windows that literally show more toolbars than webpage.
No version of Ubuntu has ever NOT had Openoffice and GIMP, unless you downloaded the server version for desktop usage for some unknown reason.
And at that, I'm done discussing anything with someone who didn't make it past 3rd grade when they taught the difference between "your" and "you're". I'm not an English major, and I'm sure there are likely some grammar errors in this post, but seriously, your vs. you're...
And btw installing something in Windows is as simple as clicking the download link and hitting run no saving anywhere no need to access terminal.
Also picking out grammar flaws on a online comment board is nothing short of pathetic.
"And at that, I'm done discussing anything with someone who didn't make it past 3rd grade when they taught the difference between "your" and "you're". I'm not an English major, and I'm sure there are likely some grammar errors in this post, but seriously, your vs. you're... "
Wow. You have some issues there, it seems. Do you have evidence of Monkeyfun14's school history or are you just making it up? In order to make such accusations in the name of being correct, you certainly must have such evidence to back up your claim.
Please present your evidence and we will all know what is true. Otherwise, correcting a person while making things up yourself somewhat derails any possibility of credibility.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Microsoft-settles-Miss-apf-15506691.html?.v=2
www.iranhome.blogfa.com ?? ?? ?? ?? ???
- by Michichael June 12, 2009 9:54 AM PDT
- The big winner here? The lawyers. Oh, and the state of Mississippi gets 40 million. Everyone else is just an afterthought.
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- by sanenazok June 12, 2009 10:29 AM PDT
- The state's yearly budget is $14 billion a year in services only (http://www.mepconline.com/images/admin/spotedit/attach/4/Budget_Fact_Sheet_FY_07_Final.pdf). So the $40 million refund to the state is about as useful as a $12 for an individual. If the state needs money it should not spend it on apparently overpriced software or raise taxes instead of using the courts to extract settlements.
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