I received an e-mail from the Computer Advisory Committee asking me to vote on whether the university should enter an agreement with Microsoft allowing students use of Microsoft products on their computers. The agreement allows student access to Microsoft’s latest operating systems, productivity applications and software development tools on computers they own. This great deal costs the students $300,000.

That is a lot of money. What is the goal of the deal with Microsoft? If the goal is to save the student money on Microsoft software then why not simply negotiate a cheaper per-student price on the already academically-priced Microsoft products? After all, if the university wants to save students more money on Microsoft products that should be the first choice. Not all students want or need Microsoft products. I understand it is common business practice to seek offers from competitors before buying from a single vendor. Has the university sought counter offers from Sun, Apple or Red Hat?

If the goal is to have a standard suite of software available then why even spend a dime? The university can choose from a number of freely available operating systems to consider “standard” such as Solaris, Linux, and NetBSD. How about declaring the freely downloadable StarOffice or KOffice the standard suite of office applications? Why even declare a standard suite of applications? Should my professor care if I used Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect or Emacs to type my paper? Obviously not.

If the university’s goal is to be sure that electronic documents can be easily viewed, edited and created as they are passed about, declare that all communications be in a known standard format. Microsoft file formats are “de facto standards,” not true standards. True standards are well documented so a variety of vendors can produce products that speak the same language, including Microsoft. Save the university’s money, save the student’s money and save your own money – vote against the ISU Microsoft Campus Agreement and let the individual choose what software to use. The world does not revolve around Microsoft and neither should Iowa State University.

Kurt Sellner

Senior

Computer engineering