Martin Devon wrote:

...

Would there be anything to be gained in becoming an umbrella for all anti-M$ interests

...writing as someone who has been trying to interest the government in Open Source software in education, I fear this would be a disastrous for any lobbying effort. Time and again I have been told by civil servants that supporting Open Source software would "distort the market" and received heavy hints about the consequences for those in power of p***ing off His Gates-ness. (In general as well people are usually better disposed to you if you seem to be in favour of something rather than against something.)

Such as being in favour of ensuring that monies collected from a substantial portion of the UK population (call them "voters" assuming the general election does go ahead in May) actually stay within the UK. Rather than contributing the "wrong way" to contry's balance of payments... As for the "distorting the market" the market is distorted as much as the event horizon of a black hole anyway. Because of the Microsoft situation having been allowed to develop. If a corporate entity is capable of intimidating any nation state then something is wrong. It the same entity is capable of intimidating any nation state in the "first world" then something is very seriously wrong. -- Mark Evans St. Peter's CofE High School Phone: +44 1392 204764 X109 Fax: +44 1392 204763