Reply #25: I'm not sure it matters, and if the money does some good...

[mike_c]

...then I say more power to him. Like I said, online coursework isn't platform or browser dependent. I use few Microsoft products in my own course design. It might be instructive to list the major tools I use:

OS: I use Microsoft Windows XP, Windows 7, and Linux platforms.

Planning: Open source FreeMind, Thunderbird

Document production/formatting: Open source OpenOffice, Adobe Acrobat Pro

Text editor: Open source jGrasp, EditPlus2

Art, image creation and manipulation: Xara 6, Adobe Photoshop (I still use version 7.0)

Data analysis and other math applications: lots, but mainly (open source) R and (proprietary) Mathematica

Presentations: Open source OpenOffice, Slidy, Microsoft PowerPoint (primarily for distribution)

Browser: Open source Firefox

Web design: mostly the old fashioned way, i.e. hand coding

Learning Management System: Open source Moodle

Communications: Quickmail, Gmail, and (proprietary, but not MS) Zimbra

Grade book management: Open source OpenOffice, MicroSoft Excel (for distribution only)

So altogether, there is relatively little need for ANY Microsoft products in the design and delivery of online course work. Several of my office computers run Windows operating systems, but that is certainly not a requirement. I also work on Obuntu Linux computers. I use a few MS Office apps, but mostly for distribution of materials that students need in native file formats, and only then because the MS apps are the most widespread. If the university media classrooms and all my students would install OpenOffice, I'd almost never have any need for MS Office products in my teaching.