The more charitable amongst us will look at the offer as a great way to improve the lot of the poor and underprivileged, while also satisfying the claims of those who believe the software giant has abused its dominant position.

Cynics however, might just have a different view.

As we all know, once a piece of software has been developed, the costs of duplication and distribution are trivial -- especially since the demise of good quality printed manuals and documentation.

So, just how much will a billion dollars worth of software cost Microsoft?

The answer -- a whole lot less than a billion!

Readers Say (updated hourly) A real cynic... - David Generous Microsoft?... - Peter It's worse even than that... - Alan Have Your Say

In fact, it could be argued that it will only cost them the price of a few thousand CDROMs -- and they're worth far less than a dollar each in high volumes.

I have no doubt that any quick-thinking Microsoft executive who might per chance to read this column will right now be saying to themselves -- "what about the cost of lost sales opportunities?"

Indeed -- every time the company gives away a piece of software it has, in theory, just lost a potential sale. That could represent a significant amount of unrealised revenue -- right?

Ah.. well, maybe not so much as you might think!

After all, this donated software will be going to the poorest schools -- those which probably couldn't have afforded to by the stuff anyway. No lost sales opportunity there.

Then there's the rate at which Open Source software seems to be infiltrating the education system.

There's a growing trend all around the world which is creating a greater awareness and use of free software in place of Microsoft's offerings.

In light of all this, it could be argued that Microsoft have boxed very clever with their seemingly generous offer.

They get to present themselves as a hero instead of a villain -- at very little cost -- while simultaneously making it harder for Open Source software to find its way into the US education system.

Perhaps now you can see why Microsoft is number one in its industry.

I'm Not Ignoring You!
If anyone has used the contact form to send me a message in the past week or so then I apologise for the fact that I didn't receive your message.

Yes, a snafu on the configuration front combined with a shift to a new webserver has meant that the contact form script was dropping your messages into a black hole somewhere.

The problem was fixed late last night so if you've responded to my free advertising offer -- please do so again and if you've sent in feedback -- sorry it was missed.

Save The Aardvark Fund
Yes, I have had several donations to the Aardvark fund and I thank those who put their money where their mouse is :-)

If guilt is gnawing away inside you then there's still time to donate.

Just drop by and hand over your loot.

Add Aardvark To Your Own Website!
Got a moment? Want a little extra fresh content for your own website or page?

Just add a couple of lines of JavaScript to your pages and you can get a free summary of Aardvark's daily commentary -- automatically updated each and every week-day.

Aardvark also makes a summary of this daily column available via XML using the RSS format. More details can be found here.

Contact me if you decide to use either of these feeds and have any problems.

Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it now!

There are new Vacancies Last added 2 Oct In The Job Centre

There are 14 Domain Names for sale