Gizza kiss fobs! Well, I thought naïve was nicer than stoopid.
1) Yes, except from the kid's PC with his games.
2) Googled for "microsoft piracy charity donation:, so presume you're talking about
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/p...onDonatePR.asp Looks more like $0.5m rather than $50m and mostly in M$ software that costs 'em nothing and locks da kids nicely into the Microsoft fold.
Or
http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/4520-6033_16-4206249.html
"....Microsoft Australia sent the charity, PCs for Kids, a letter telling them to stop installing old versions of Windows onto the machines..."
Or
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-274071.html?legacy=cnet or
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/25085.html or
http://www.themacobserver.com/column...20020423.shtml (worth reading, that one!)
"Microsoft has already forced one Australian charity that was seeking to place donated computers in the hands of low-income kids out of business. They wanted that charity to pay for new software licenses on the 486 and Pentium (I) computers it was doling out. Class act, that was."
So before I gave my previously disadvantaged student that old 386 so he could write his thesis I should have scrubbed the drive of Win 3.11 and Office prehistoric and encouraged him to purchase XP? Yeah, right.
I honestly tried to find any of the GREAT CHARITABLE ACTS OF MS on Google, as you encouraged me to do but came up a bit short.