when you publish a scientific article in an academic journal, you have to specify the piece of research equipment you used, as it may has affected your result in some way you don't know.

Now everyone is using the same research platform, but not for of its scientific merits. Think about what it means to our intellectual freedom: What microsoft make decides what kind of research we can do.

Anyone every studied sociology of science and technology won't call this "win-win".

Waa! I don't like microsoft! WAAA! Its so unfair. If you don't like Microsoft products, don't use them. Nobody shoves it down your throat. Now if a company decides that they want to standardize on ms, thats their choice. If you work for that company, thats the price you pay for the privilege of working for them. :0

Microsoft uses its money to advance their cause? How horrible.

ESRI is the microsoft in the geographic information system business. They used the same trick to make virtually every university in the US teach a class with their product (other than a handful of sch still insist to come up with their own software / algorithm). You are virtually forced to use their product to do research. ESRI probably has more say in the research landscape of GIS then the National Science Foundation.

Microsoft is just 1000x of ESRI. How come anyone would consider that as 'win-win'?

I didn't see listed any Microsoft-sponsored initiatives studying SECURITY...but I guess we knew that!

It's win-win because most schools wouldn't have the money for most of this equipment.

How can it be a win-win for schools to be saddled with thousands of worm-infested, expensive to support, unoperational computers running the proprietary products of a convicted monopolist felon?

They're everywhere, and for hardware companies like Apple and others to survive makes it even harder. I'm not sure what Apple's strategy will be over the next 20-30 years, but if they continue to remain a niche player in the industry and not increase marketshare, then they're going to be in some trouble. Because the cost of a Mac is at a premium, the only choice apple has to make inroads is to port OS X to X86 or mass produce chips and boards and make a cheap box.

But in the end, Microsoft will never have full control. Linux is definitely putting them in check.

Just like those new, pretentious commercials on how MicroSuck loves to help children develop - that's why they exist afterall...
As for Apple competing with M$ - you gotta be kidding. Apple's ~5Billion in cash is a drop in the bucket for M$. And Steve-O's bonuses couldn't make a dent in this barrage.
M$ is doing this for one reason only - to get themselves in with every last person/institution on the planet. Anyone (Mac or PC) who thinks otherwise, is wearing blinders.

Satan offered University Presidents immortality in exchange for their souls. HE characterized the deal as a win-win situation...

your throat? What planet are you on? It's shoved down your throat everytime a business puts up a web page that you MUST use IE to access. I couldn't access my local government's web page because it demanded I use IE to do some basic registration. Try to order a pizza online at Pizza Hut using anything but IE and see how far you get. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

"Exactly how much does it cost to become a MSFT w****?"
When I was an undergrad at Big F**king State University in the Lone Star State. Our computer lab, once the home of the largest number of MACs of all State Universities, was slowly filling up with brand new Dell machines. No new G3s were brought in at all although a few showed up in the Physics/Math building. Macs were in the Genetics labs also and elsewhere but in the MAIN 250+ machine lab? Nada. My classmate in Computer Science told me one reason: Over the Summer several of the lab admin staffers had been "retained" by MacroOffed as "consultants. Trained for free, offered jobs and paid $10,000 each, they became much more pro-PC. True story.

"In the end, though, they were won over in part by the promise of the technology — and by a $150,000 donation the company made to the university, he said."

"“We’ve really broken through a lot of those trust and credibility issues,” he said.
       One way Microsoft has done that is by offering some gifts with no strings attached or by allowing academics to have a great deal of freedom with the money they are given."

'At a question-and-answer session between the academics and Gates, one professor asked the Microsoft founder about his views about the study of information technology, a part of computer science that emphasizes on how documents, spreadsheets and other data should be handled. What kinds of technologies should students majoring in this subject be taught?
       Gates replied quickly and with a smile: “Microsoft Office.” '

Winning the best minds of academia is a brilliant strategy on microsoft part, I hate to admit. It will pay them handsomely. They gain mindshare and in the long run the best research ideas will be incorporated into microsoft products. Will Mac or Linux be able to keep up with the competition? I wonder, for example, if the "open source" will be able to keep up with the pace. As long as there remain top universities backing Linux, maybe. Is there any important university backing Mac? If there are few or none, this is very bad news.

So much for the DOJ and antitrust.