Are techies always the biggest whiners when things don't go exactly their way?

"Microsoft has extended its cheap software for education plan, aimed at strangling open source in its crib, to Russia."
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=1655

Just like the Mandriva/Nigeria deal mentioned here and here, it's hard for me to get worked up about this.

I tend to think this is a good thing.  First, it proves that open source is at least equivalent in features and functionality.  (MS wouldn't drop the price if the open source threat wasn't real.)  Second, it's forcing MS to compete on price (at least in some markets) with free software.  

These developments show us the natural next step in the battle between software ideologies.  What happens when large numbers of businesses also threaten to go open source?  

If we take this new level of competition to its logical conclusion we'll eventually see MS make their software free ($) and adopt a revenue model based on software as a service like the open source companies have done.  That will put open source and proprietary software on a somewhat level playing field at least as far as price is concerned.  (Right now Open Source has the obvious price advantage.)  The result will be a battle over who can innovate faster and better.  The victor will be the one with the better product.  

Given what's come out of MS lately (Vista and Office 2007) versus what's come out of the open source community (Compiz-Fusion, Ubuntu 7.10, etc.) I think it's pretty clear who will win that match. :D