. . . but I haven't been able to get into The Register to refresh my memory on any subsequent try. So, working from memory . .

I strongly agree that Microsoft is attempting to lure businesses into quantity licensing. I received several very threatening postcards telling Microsoft "partners" we'd better get as legal as our customers should be. The cards strongly suggested saving money by using the "open license" program to get legal. They didn't even mention it was a quantity license program and there was a lower quantity limit of 5 (so maybe they suspended the quantity requirement).

Once you buy any quantity license, you're screwed. They can audit you any time they want, with or without cause. You've signed an agreement that specifically allows them to do so.

The whole objective is to squeeze more revenue out of the existing monopoly until they can establish a new monopoly on the Internet and start milking that.

Once those letters go out telling businesses what they've signed, there will be fear. Bust a couple of those and get it in the business news and fear hits those without quantity licensing. Send scare letters to them too.

Typical is a business I know that has 4 computers, but shares a single copy of the Office 2000 Upgrade with another business in the same building. Same for the one copy of Office 97 it was upgraded from.

Do they have enough Windows licenses? They have only two that can be traced to the computer they were sold with. So right there we have a $900,000 max fine just between Windows and Office. "So, now lets negotiate, but I tell you, we aren't going to bring this down much unless that Linux server in the corner magically becomes Windows 2000 Server".

A company like this can't switch to Linux desktops because their most critical software package runs only under Windows and there is no Linux equivalent, nor will there be in the forseeable future. Even if they could run it under Wine or what have you, they need support and that would surely be denied.