The International Herald Tribune reports on an alleged internal Microsoft memorandum in which a senior Microsoft sales executive authorized deep discounts — even giving software away free — in order to win key deals with governments and large institutions, and drawing from a special fund to subsidize the reduced pricing. “Under NO circumstances lose against Linux,” the executive wrote, according to the Tribune story.

The Tribune story goes on to question the legality of the tactic: “Of all the Microsoft tactics described in the internal messages, the two discount programs appear to be the most aggressive — and perhaps the most legally questionable,” the Tribune writes.

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