Microsoft again. Sha! They crack me up. The Register is reporting on their new licensing system for schools. When counting up how many licenses you’re going to pay for, you have to count all PCs and Macs. “But Tim, Windows doesn’t run on an Apple computer!” I hear you say. True, true but Microsoft Office does and what Microsoft is making schools pay for is software packages. Here, I’ll let John Lettice explain it to you:

In School Agreement 3.0, you take your number of eligible PCs (inc Macs, of course), then you select at least one product which you license for all eligible PCs. One of these packages is presumably the most popular, as it’s the Desktop Package, which “Includes Office, Core CAL & Windows Upgrades,” and offers discounts beyond what you’d get if you bought the components individually. So that’s how you wind up buying Windows upgrades for Macs in the States.

See? Schools get to pay the same price for Office on their Macs as they do for Windows Upgrades and other software on the PCs. All I can say is that it is a good thing that Apple is the leader in supply computers to education. And at this rate, I don’t think that position will be challanged any time soon.