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Mandriva's Open Letter To Steve Ballmer
An anonymous reader writes "An entry on the Mandriva Blog, written by Mandriva CEO François Bancilhon, says that the Nigerian government, after ordering thousands of Classmate PCs with Mandriva Linux installed, has suddenly decided that they will instead install Windows. They will pay for the pre-loaded Mandriva Linux on the low-cost computing devices intended for children in the developing world, but immmediately replace the OS. The blog doesn't quite use the 'B' word but does suggest that this was not a decision that the Nigerian government made on its own."
but what is the "B" word? Blackmail?
I'm not even sure that Nigeria is a real country. I keep sending government officials there money - and they keep saying I'll be rich but it never happens. How do you bribe people like that?
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
There are those who are going to say that what Microsoft did isn't wrong and that it's 'just business'. If Bob's Concrete Construction paid the government $1 million to get the contract to build a new major freeway bypass, you guys would be calling it bribery. But when it's Microsoft paying the government to use Windows you call it business.
Someone with this viewpoint -- please explain this fanboy logic to me.
My blog
But they will only only be able to pay for the rest of the Windows licenses after Ballmer sends the first 1000 licenses upfront, which will enable them to free up the treasury money.
Fishy things have been going on in Classmate PC Vs OLPC. Recently I read that Microsoft & Intel have already begun shipment to Libya of their classmate PCs. Libya had agreed to buy 1.2 million OLPCs but, of course, they aren't available yet.
... and not for the technological reasons that they should be concerned with.
What's really strange is I can't find anything on this from Microsoft or Intel. You're providing 150,000 laptops at only $200 each to a developing nation for the purposes of education and you don't have a press release outside of that country? Maybe they're just being humble? Or maybe someone was leveraging their ex-boss's many donations to African medicine & development to convince the Libyan government to take a different route?
You know, it's great that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is donating all that money to research and aide but if word gets out that they're using that to influence who those countries do business with, I don't think anyone's going to be impressed anymore. There's something fishy going on here, I'll bet you start to see many more countries make the switch to Classmate PCs over OLPCs
My work here is dung.
Who wants to bet that, with a name like that, he's a geek who actually gets laid a lot?
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
REDMONT, WASHINGTON.
ATTENTION: THE PRESIDENT/DICTATOR
DEAR SIR,
CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL
HAVING CONSULTED WITH MY COLLEAGUES AND BASED ON THE INFORMATION GATHERED FROM THE MICROSOFTIAN CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY, I HAVE THE PRIVILEGE TO REQUEST FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE TO TRANSFER THE SUM OF $47,500,000.00 (FORTY SEVEN MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS) INTO YOUR ACCOUNTS. IF YOU ARE ABLE TO REPLACE THE LINNEX SOFTWARES ON THE PC COMPUTER LAPTOPS YOU HAVE PURCHASED WITH WINDOWS, WE WILL BE ABLE TO GIVE YOU A KICKBA--CONSULTING FEE FOR YOUR TROUBLED ASSISTANCE.
YOURS IN MAMMON,
WILLIAM (BILL) GATES.CX
frickin' lameness filter, that's what the scams look like, how else am I supposed to write them? Don't mess with my joke. Defeat the filter, clog the filter, replace the filter with genuine GM parts....
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Shouldn't we wait for some more specific information/evidence before we accuse Microsoft of bribery? If Mandriva stops short of this, perhaps we should too - after all, it's a serious charge.
I'm sure Microsoft had something to do with their decision, but *maybe* it simply came down to convincing Nigeria that its product was better. It sounds like they are giving Windows out for free, that may have impressed the Nigerian government, and does not constitute bribery.
NT
From one perspective (although undoubtedly an unpopular one here on /.) a free copy of Windows is worth more than a free copy of Mandriva. If MS came by later and offered free, or heavily discounted copies of Windows, I could see how Nigeria would accept it. After all, it vastly increases the range of applications that are now available for them to use. It's a great deal for Microsoft. Get those Nigerian kids entrenched in the Microsoft camp at a young age.
Like I said, it may not be popular here, but I can see how this deal could be viewed as good for both parties by both parties...
Since when are the titles of the replies underlined? I don't remember this? Is this a sctrictly "Linux" section feature?
Not like MSFT is going to catch up with that anytime soon... and at the rate Vista keeps flopping, it may get to the point where bribing every official in Africa won't be enough to catch up at all.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
1 - make a public announcement your school/university/corporation/government office is switching to Open Source software.
2 - ???
3 - announce you suddenly realized OSS doesn't fit your needs and Microsoft products are much beter than OSS ones.
4 - ???
5 - Profit!
Step 2 involves someone from MS, even Ballmer himself, taking the first plane to wave a big check from Microsoft in your face. Step 4 is that someone signing the check.
Quote:but what is the "B" word? Blackmail?
I do not have mod points but the parent's question is legitimate.
Actually articles that got phrases like "b,c,etc words" should not get to the front page. Besides there being hundreds of words that start with b, it's just bad journalism to write in such a childish way. If you don't want to say the word because it's rude or inappropriate there are most likely synonyms in the English language.
I'm not an english native speaker and i can find a lot of meanings for "b word".
Mod parent underrated
Hugs and kisses
He can't look himself in his mirror in the morning... He threw a chair at it !
Unless they got copies of Halo 3 with the deal - I think they got hosed.
From the comments:
Wow, I can't imagine where that post might have originated from?
A thistle is a fat salad for an ass's mouth...
begin troll: ... windows NT, 95, 98, me, xp, with some linuxes, redhat, slackware, etc in the middle and then i finished my OS evolution in Mandrake, that latter became Mandriva.
So I began in DOS 3.3, then i upgraded to 5.0 , 6.0 windows 3.1
I paid for all the hardware/software from my pocket in between all those evolutions. And now those ugly, poor, ignorant, future scammers africans kids will get a free laptop that would come with the best OS i found until today for free ?!?!? NO WAY !!!! Make them known that evolution doesn't come for free ! GIVE THEM VISTA !!! Make them know that evolution has a path and a price ! Leave them to suffer with Vista light with DRM and crippleware, don't forget to install norton antivirus and WGA. After that when they think that they can live well without computers offer them slackware linux, them give them gentoo, and when they understand the evolution of the OS finally let them install Mandriva. :end troll
There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Market.
The comments on the blog posting provide the clearest possible proof that the Mandriva user community doesn't really have two brain cells to rub together. A shame, because back in the day Linux-Mandrake was a good distribution and its userbase wasn't entirely composed of ranting cluebies. Choice picks:
Stupid for Nigeria, now that South Africa uses Ubunta; they'll surely get hacked.
This letter needs to be followed up. I urge the readers to send this to your local attorney-general or comparable legal authority.
Wait until they discover Windoze still runs on top of DOS and uses Winsock DLL for communications. ROTFLMAO
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
The saddest poem
Accusing the Nigerian Government of corruption is like accusing the sun of shining. I can't help thinking he'd have had a far better chance of keeping Linux on those boxes if he'd simply told the Nigerian Govt. that those discount Windows licences that Ballmer was bribing them with could be sold on at a big profit.
He'd even get bonus points for getting round the EULA by hinting heavily enough that it really ought to be illegal under Nigerian law.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
Was the point of OLPC to provide low cost computers to needy children or to promote Mandriva/OSS ??
If the Nigerian Government says "thanks for the computers, but we'd like to make our own choice as to what software to run on them" then how is that bad ? The kids still get their laptops and all the supposed benefits they were to deliver. Is Mandriva suggesting that the entire point of the OLPC project was to force children to use their software to the exclusion of all else ?
Here's a neat trick, take the "open letter to Steve Ballmer" and swap any references to Mandriva to Microsoft and vice versa. Now we have a nasty letter from M$ complaining that Nigeria is dumping the Windows OS on their new laptops for Linux. If you find this a perfectly acceptable situation, then admit to yourself that your support for the OLPC project was not to "help the children" but to promote your own beliefs.
Or then fucking use the one and only language you know... I'm not even going to mention pronunciation in this post...
..even in Europe, let alone in places where corruption is almost the expected behaviour.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
The world needs more people who speak their minds and tell the truth with complete disregard for other people's "feelings". It's very refreshing, especially coming from a CEO since most of what big business says to the public and to other businesses and the government is so watered down and devoid of meaning that it doesn't actually say anything at all. I applaud this guy for having the stones to do what he did. The sad thing is, there aren't enough people who respect this kind of behavior, so people that act like this don't tend to get very powerful (or stay powerful for very long). It's sad we live in a time when bullshitting is a more profitable skill than being right--the only thing that should matter.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
From bribing standards board of sweden, to bribing nigerian government. microsoft is losing its edge it seems.
Read radical news here
Yeah, it's completely impossible that they received their computers, were dissatisfied with Linux because it wasn't what they were used to, and decided to wipe the drives and install (no doubt pirated) Windows on it. It has to be Microsoft's evil blackmail machine.
But I'll give you another perspective, by necessity pure fiction, of how it could work. Suppose there is this small Eastern European country, nevermind which one. It has a minister in charge for the state administration. He could be a small, nerdy guy with heavy glasses on a big nose. His salary isn't great, and he has a lot of expenses.
... for now. Finally, there is the government. First, they gotta be legal. They have reputation to mind, besides, there are always those "free trade" incentives the vendor can play. Besides, there is the Z - Y thingy.
So, what has he gotta do? He's gotta make some money on the side. But how? Well, he figures, he'll get a "commission" on what his department pays. He doesn't know much about IT, he doesn't care much about his department. But he knows how much his expenses are. So, he makes a calculation. He needs X. His commission rate is Y. The total budget he needs is Z = X/Y or thereabouts. Then, he goes shopping.
What does shopping look like? He has some people he trusts, very few. They make some calls, private. They talk about lotsa things, but one thing is repeated. "We have budget Z, and we need an offer". The people being called of course know what Y is, so they figure out they got Z-Y. They make some offers. The minister picks his candidates. Then real work begins.
The suppliers can only be chosen by winning a bid. So, the already agreed offer is then carefully drafted into the conditions for the bidding, in such way that only the chosen can win. Then, after all preparations, the bid is announced, applications are gathered by all -- suckers and winners, and, after a procedure, a winner is announced.
Sometimes suckers try hard. Real hard. They do a lot of work (including some trash-digging and what you not), and even manage to win. But they win the public auction. They never win the one the minister has set up, because they have never had the minister's offer -- it is not for everyone. So, if they win, the minister loses.
That is why even if they win, they never win. There is always a change afterwards, and they kicked out. On a technicality, or a new rule, or just on a whim -- it doesn't matter. They can't win, because they don't even compete. That's how it could work on one side.
Consider the other side now. A big software company is determined not to let go of the market in that country. But what is the market there? First of all, there are the home installs. These are all pirated, and collection is not possible. So, the software vendor scratches them out. For now. There is the business sector. They are also kinda semi-legal, and need to be squeezed, but for that the vendor needs the helping hand from the government. So, the vendor scratches em out
So, the vendor invests a (small) amount in an office, hires some very shrewd local staff. Pays big salary, taxis, etc. All they need to do is get the government deal. So they do. The vendor doesn't want to know how, of course. So they play the "we're so blind" game. Somehow someone in the vendor's office gets the call. Then they are on it. They give the offer. They win.
Then the fun begins. The vendor's formula is usually setup so that from the first (Z - Y) they get enough to finance their operations in that country for a decade. Then another deal comes. And another. The more, the merrier. Until the budget is used up, it is all Z - Y. Relations improve. Then, the government starts to squeeze on the businesses. Then on the home users. And the vendor keeps profiting. The relationship can expand publicly -- and it could be "free" sometimes. Like, all government employees receive "free" licenses for home use. Or some schools get "free" licenses. Or some instiutions. There maybe some protests from other interested parties.
But, whatever happens on the surface, the game is the same. There is always the Z - Y equation in the background. Those who don't compete in that auction never win. Even when they do. And so it goes.
Were probably not compatible with Linux.
Shouldn't that be Vista?
So in today's news, first the BBC is in bed with Bill Gates. Now, Steve Ballmer is giving the-b-word - aka blow jobs - to Nigerian officals.
If I was in Redmond today, I wouldn't drink the water....
Most of what you say stopped being true in the late 90s.
If MS came by later and offered free, or heavily discounted copies of Windows, I could see how Nigeria would accept it.
For it to even start to break even, M$ is going to have to pay to have it installed as well as providing all of the required software free of charge. Note that M$ does not own all of the software required, like Adobe Reader, Flash and countless other must have software packages.
[Windows] vastly increases the range of applications that are now available for them to use.
The only thing increased by Windows is the rage of stuff you need to buy. The free software world gives you a choice of quality applications that are cost free and easily modified to suit any particular purpose. Bits in a box will never be as good a match for your needs and they often come with additional and costly restrictions. There are very few upsides left to M$ domination.
Like I said, it may not be popular here, but I can see how this deal could be viewed as good for both parties by both parties.
We can be sure that the deal was great for the parties directly involved but the users have been sold.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
Considering MS's war of extermination - I all Linux users do what we can to make Linux absolutely perfect hardware issues permitting. I mean, I want Linux distributions that are truly superior in every way possible to Windows. I want to make these people sorry they were every born. Mandriva is my distributor and my Linux of choice. While I support all things Linux and would never pose one Linux user against another, I am willing to learn C and C++ forwards and backwards. I will code solutions and drivers for Linux myself if I have too.
We should stop waiting around for others to do our work for us and stand on our own merits. Let me give an example.
We are closer to an Exchange solution than everyone thinks. If eGroupware and Kontact supported Kerberos over XML-RPC, Exchange would be finished. eGroupware and Kontact replicate all the features of Exchange and has a technologically superior advantage of funneling everything over HTTP. But it doesn't support Kerberos so it becomes a total nuisense to configure. The fact that Evolution does not support XMLRPC at all is just insane.
On the Open Office Front. Continue to support ODF, if changes need to be made to ODF to support more features, extend the features. Create versions of ODF backward and foreward compatible. And do whatever it takes to reverse engineer OOXML so that OO.org can read them, and resave them as ODF. Lets start really getting serious and making the bastards pay.
Thank you so much for saying that.
It's strange to me that people don't appreciate the fact that, were this going the other way, /. would be collectively laughing at Ballmer for throwing a hissy fit. Then again, no one actually bothering to read that open letter probably plays into it. If people actually read it, they might realize that there is nothing in there to substantiate any allegation. Hell, it doesn't even explicitly make any allegations. It just insinuates with: "something is weird about the deal! (give Ballmer evil eye)"
Nothing is free. The Nigerian government may get paid to use Windows, but MS is going to expect a few things from them. Pro-MS legislation? Voting toward MS in international votes? Requiring outside documents be MS friendly? I doubt they are getting free money with no expectation of favors.
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
If you are in charge of purchasing IT for a government, or a school, and you want free stuff from msft, just announce that you are going to use Linux.
Presto! Msft reps at your door! The reps have boat loads of software, hardware, training, service techs, and bribe money.
Better yet, get Linux on hardware that's much too low-end for Vista, get a major hardware upgrade, at msft's expense, then go back to Linux.
Or, just take a big fat bribe from msft, and tell the government that Linux, ODF, whatever, won't work.
The reasons for the switch are plain as day. Its hard to fully integrate Linux and Exchange. Nigeria has an economy that gets a huge boost from SPAMing. Everyone knows that if your serious about SPAMing you use Exchange. They would have been doing a huge education disservice to the children their if they did not educate them using the tools they will be using in the future careers as SPAM server admins. They would have been denied an opportunity to become familiar with industry leading SPAMing tools, such as Exchange and Windows.
I am sorry to have to point out to my fellow Slashbots, that FOSS just does not offer much that is truly competitive in the SPAMing market space. I mean it can up to 30 seconds to install the sendmail package on most distors and them more then almost half an hour to configure it. After all that you know what your still not done done. Chances are you need to setup a working DNS that actually handles PTR records! All this just to send a few million mails forget that, its just not reasonable.
With Exchange I just drop the FREE(as in beer) CD-R disk I got form my local street vendor and in seven or eight minuets I can start offering my customers great deals on Rolex knock offs, Auto Insurance, Viagra. FOSS is just not ready for the enterpires SPAMers data center. It might be ok for the Fortune 500, and the average medium and small business, but its not ready for the SPAMers basement.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
"419send.exe" won't run on Linux so they need Windows, how else are they children suppose to afford to go to school and use the computers?
is a crime in Europe and recently, there was quite an upheaval (and still is) with Siemens, where leading officials had to go, probably got penalized and investigations are still going on (not following all the details there).
The obviousness of this "B" deal and the country (Nigeria government apparently open to bribe) is pretty clear and it will be interesting how this plays out in the US. Maybe the same as democracy - he who bribes the most (shoots the most money in election campaigns) wins and rules the country.
So they had a computer loaded with a bunch of apps and an OS, all tuned for the device. Then they wipe that off and put some version of Windows with write, paint and Outlook Express on it? Hopefully they got minesweeper and solitaire too, with the promise of porting Freecell with the next service pack.
Hey Steve, how do you feel looking at yourself in the mirror in the morning?
Like every other morning, he throws a chair at himself.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Further businesses too will realize their negotiating power with MSFT will increase if they could bluff that they are switching to Linux. Again if MSFT calls their bluff and they could not switch, then they would be a deeper hole. So at least a few businesses would realize that the best way to negotiate a deal with MSFT is to reduce their switching cost to Linux as low as possible. Those companies will eschew deep ties and multiple levels of dependency on MSFT tools. This is how monopolies crack in free markets. Illegal acts by the monopolists can prolong, sometime by very long time, the cracks. But if the monopoly the Church had over the affairs of Europe for 1000 years cracked, why not MSFT's control over businesses for just 2 decades?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Japanese TV companies gained full market share by using high profit revenue in their home market to sell under cost in other markets. MS is doing the same thing the US said was unfair.
Africa: UN Partners With Microsoft to Bring Technology Benefits to Millions
Nigeria: Microsoft Releases 'Unlimited Potential to Learn'"
Nigeria: Microsoft Contributes 47 Percent to Nigeria's IT and Economic Growth
Mandriva is a small company with a small presence world-wide. Microsoft directly employs 31,000 people abroad and has billions to invest in third-world economic development.
Mandriva, S.A. began as MandrakeSoft in 1998. It currently has about 130 employees (80 of whom are engineers) and has offices in France, USA, and Brazil. It sells its products in more than 140 countries and estimates the number of Mandriva Linux users to be in the 6-to-8 million range. Mandriva
To everybody who thinks that the only reason that Nigeria would switch to Windows is bribery, I offer another possible explanation (note that I have no more evidence for this than anybody else has for bribery allegations):
Nigeria is one of the few countries in Africa where the economy is not a complete basket case. These countries (particularly South Africa, Botswana, Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria) are currently setting up call centres and have stated long term goals to become off-shoring destinations. While there is some off-shoring in the open source world there is a huge market for off-shoring in the Microsoft world. Perhaps the government of Nigeria is looking at that market and thinking that they could take a chunk of India's off-shoring revenue in a few years. If so, training their people to use Windows machines instead of Linux could be considered an investment in the future.
Why doesn't Slashdot ever get slashdotted?
I'm sorry, but Windows is required by the "Nigerian Scam." Thus Linux just won't do. Years of development have gone into the automated spam generating programs required by it.
is that Anonymous==Steve B or Anonymous == Billy G?
Interested in a Flash-based MAME front end? Visit mame.danzbb.com
i am convinced that microsoft just fell for the Nigerian bank scam.
Just curious... is François Bancilhon's letter open-source?
> Was the point of OLPC to provide low cost computers to needy children...
or trapping them into a software ecosystem controlled by a single corporation?
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
Assuming that MS is truly giving away Windows for free then I have to believe that this is either an abuse of monopoly power or a case of illegal dumping. Selling a product at a loss in order to undercut a competitor has got to be illegal somehow, doesn't it?
Don Dugger
"Censeo Toto nos in Kansa esse decisse." - D. Gale
Does anyone remember that story couple of weeks ago? http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/13/2121250
How Bill Gates (or Big Willy as his "associates" call him) got denied entry visa to Nigeria?
Did you really think he was going there for his health?
When the Godfather comes to your house and asks for a favour, you don't say no unless you like sleeping with fishes and/or waking up with a stallion's head next to you.
Just ask Moe Greene.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Or did everyone else just miss the part about the contract being unchanged? The Nigerian government is already spending X dollars to get Mandriva. Before you call foul, what are you even calling foul about? Microsoft bribed Nigeria to ... give Microsoft money?
Microsoft: "Hey, we'll give you ten bucks if you give us a hundred bucks; deal?"
And yet here we are, with over a hundred rabid posts containing the 'B Word'. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.
1. "You install Windows and we'll give you $100 per machine."
2. "You install Windows or we suddenly stop ignoring how much pirated Microsoft software you're running."
Probably a combination
"You install the Windows we give you on those machines and we'll continue to ignore your pirated software."
Even for non linux-enthusiastic users, replacing linux by windows on this offer cant be a choice based on a technical and unbiased decision. First, the hardware (i will assume the intel site is updated and match this offer) : http://www.classmatepc.com/classmatepc-system-hardware.html "DDR-II 256M SO-DIMM" Last time i tryed to use windows XP with 256mb ram, it wasn't exactly fast... Add any word processor on the top of it, and you can be sure scrolling on a reasonably small document with images will be a very frustrating XPeriance. With linux on a reasonably light window manager, it run just fine. Then, the software... Mandriva can come packaged with all the program a student need, and with easy "system + program" update mechanisms, while upgrading applications on windows require at least manual install (if picking freesoftware on the top of windows) or more money. Upgrading the OS : how does Nigeria plan to move to the more recent versions of microsoft windows when XP will be unsupported ? It's a 2001 operating system, and every new MS-OS double the hardware requirements. The failure of vista will mitigate the "end of life" timing of XP, but that's just for a time until microsoft can "persuade more people that Vista is good for them". I can understand mandriva guys to be disoriented by this biased fight. Could Nigeria consider dual booting... Or is more important for ballmer to delete linux than to install windows ?
Some people are really full of themselves. They think just because the kids and the teachers might actually prefer Windows over some Linux distro, that there must be some giant conspiracy where Microsoft is forcing Windows on people. Ask kids what they like to use, they'll tell you. And the 5 in a 100 geeks who would use Linux doesn't count for the whole class.
Boo hoo is the B word here. This article should be tagged as boohoo since it is just whining about Microsoft.
Um, I hate to be the one to point this out, but this story is not about the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project.
Nigeria, in it's infinite wisdom, chose not to participate in the OLPC project. Instead, they opted to go for the Intel Classmate PC, and were originally convinced to use a model supplied with Mandriva Linux and some fairly extensive regionalization and software customization developed and preloaded. I submit that it was this same customization which must have been the deciding factor in selecting this platform to begin with.
The issue at hand is that now, after they agreed to a initial contract for 17,000 units, they have suddenly and without any apparant rationale, decided to take delivery of this order as committed and then pay to have Microsoft Windows installed on every system. There has been no reasonable explanation put forward, either by the Nigerian Government, Microsoft or and third party as to why Nigeria would choose to incur the non-zero costs of acquisition and deployment of Windows on these systems.
It is not a matter of comparing the costs of Linux vs. Windows, as the cost of the Mandriva licenses are embedded in the acquisition and are thus a sunk cost. Even if Microsoft agreed to give away the Windows licenses for free, there would still be a costs to customize and install Windows on the 17,000 target machines. There is no way to get around the fact that this is a real, after-the-fact new cost that either the Nigerian Government is paying out of pocket (with no explanation to it's taxpayers as to the reason), or is being footed by Microsoft for some improper purpose (Microsoft shareholders are not in the business of thrid world charity). As well, there has been no discussion as to any possible customization and/or regionalization of the target platform (Classmate PC with Windows XP), much less any comparison to the work committed to by Mandriva.
Lest that last argument be discounted, allow me to argue that there is no demonstrable reason to have selected a Classmate PC running Mandriva for (or any other Linux) for $200 over the OLPC XO platform (with customized, pre-installed Linux) at $100 per unit, unless it has to do with the customization and/or suitability to task of the specific bundled platform. Please note that in his open letter, Francois clearly stated that this was an open process that Microsoft fought long and hard against, and still Mandriva managed to beat out both the Classmate + Windows and OLPC + Linux options, only to suffer a very odd reversal at the 11th hour.
If any Microsoft apologist here can invent a reasonable explanation for this situation, I suggest you save posting here and instead apply to Microsoft PR for an immediate position.
-- People who think they know it all, really annoy those of us who do!
It certainly wasn't to promote MS Windows to the developing world or to lock them into proprietary standards. Plus, I think, a certain amount of thought went into tailoring the Linux distro and user interface for the target market.
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
(Read's own post... glances at TFA)... Hang on. we're talking Classmate not OLPC - but the principle is the same.
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
I know the guy is a native Frenchmen and all, but with all due respect, that was one of the worst-written open letters I've ever read; atrocious grammar and all.
It's an OPEN letter. People are going to read it. It's addressed to Ballmer: it's going to make news.
Couldn't François have found a native English speaker to proof-read it first?!
I mean, he's posting this on behalf of a company he's representing. Does he want to embarass them or make them proud?
there is free software available for Windows, correct?
Correct, but there's much more for GNU/Linux and it's much easier to obtain and keep running. Why cripple good free software with an obtrusive, insecure, single screen GUI? It's like trying to eat a gourmet meal on a $400/seat ant pile while everyone else is having a great time at the free buffet restaurant.
Clearly the open letter was written in an emotional state of mind. Just short of calling names, François insinuates that something fishy went on (and something very well may have), but it doesn't seem he did his homework to figure out if this suspicion was justified. As there is no proof, it rests on only assumptions. Those assumptions may very well be justified, and even correct- but until he has proof, they are just that: assumptions.
Good thing François didn't actually call names because that would have been slander (please excuse my English Legalese if I used the wrong term).
Now if I would be Steve, and almost be called names based on nothing but assumptions after winning a round fairly, I don't think I would care much. The taste of victory would just be too strong.
If I *would* have bribed someone, I'd probably care even less. The letter doesn't tell me anything I don't already know.
If I would be Steve, had bribed someone and someone could prove it- Now that might make make me throw around a chair or two.
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
Is it going to be Win95 or 3.1 or something? From what I can tell, the specs for the Classmate PC are woefully pathetic to reasonably run XP, let alone Vista. Or are brand new high-end laptops part of the deal between MS and Nigeria, too?
What's MS supposed to not try to steal sales from it's competitors. Get a grip people. This is a business, not Unicef. If Mandriva truly had a compelling product to offer, MS wouldn't be able to do that, but the FACT is MS has the more appealing product from home users to teacher to most corporate professionals, windows is the choice to run the largest variety of hardwar and software on the cheapest platforms.
If Apple wasn't retarded they'd have that market also, but in refusing to port Tiger to low end hardware they have doomed any chance to use MS lackluster Vista performance against them to any large degree.
Had apple ported to all hardware instead of requiring SSE3 and therefore eliminating the majority of existing computers on the planet as potential hardware platforms they would be in a position to undermine MS in third world companies. Though, ultimately MS can bribe the entire nation to stick with their platform and still make money on the deal in the long term, but that's hardly any different than how the console war work. The purchase price is subsidized by the manufacturer to some degree with the knowlege that future sales will and licensing will pay off the different. Even if Windows is the best platform, MS will still pay you stick with it for now, and ultimately thats smart business and that is a luxury MS deserves for being a sucessful busienss for several decades. Mandriva had their shot, they didn't follow up and they didn't have enough in writting. Who's fault is that. If Mandriva wants to compete with a monolith like MS they need to get a much more professional.
AND fuck Nigera anyway that plae is a corrupt shithole. We shouldn't even be dealing with a government like that no less giving them deals on computers so they can sell them for guns.
On May 15, 2006, the State Department announced its intention to rescind Libya's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism in recognition of the fact that Libya had met the statutory requirements for such a move: it had not provided any support for acts of international terrorism in the preceding six-month period, and had provided assurances that it would not do so in the future. On June 30, 2006, the U.S. rescinded Libya's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. In July 2007, Mr. Gene Cretz was nominated by President Bush as ambassador to Libya. Background Note: Libya
Hard work, good tech, ethics : that is definitely Microsoft.
Hard work: There is no such thing as "free" software. Microsoft is entitled to the profits from the massive amounts of work they have put into their OS and other software.
Good tech: If you are an elitist geek or can afford to pay one or two to be at your beck and call, sure you can use Linux. For most of the world, this is not an option. Linux on the OLPC will be a disaster. Kudos to Nigeria for being smart enough to realize that.
Ethics: To whom is the Linux community accountable? No one. But if MSoft so much as farts in the wrong place, the hordes will be all over them.
The way some posters here assume stupidity and cupidity to be at the heart of this borders on racism.
This is not a self-referential sig.
Clearly the open letter was written in an emotional state of mind. Just short of calling names
The sad thing is that a lot of people seem to take this as fact around here.
There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
As others have pointed out, TFA isn't about OLPC, it's about Nigeria's order of the Classmate PC and what goes on it -- which completely misses the OLPC's point. Giving a commodity laptop to a child with, say, Windows and Office on it does almost nothing to enhance the child's education. But Intel looks at the OLPC's program and sees only the laptops, just as Microsoft looks at the OLPC's program and sees only the operating system. This as if the OLPC decided to sell special textbooks to a country and a paper mill sees this and thinks "Books, of course!" and goes on to sell the country 200 million copies of "Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul", while some other company hot contests the font in which it will be printed.
In a way, the OLPC may have already won... They have got people reconsidering the role of laptops in education. Both the children in the OLPC and Classmate programs will get laptops. And, assuming the OLPC's hypothesis is correct, the students in the OLPC program will do better. And since the OLPC software and curriculum will be freely available, what do you suppose people will run on the Classmates, then?
Can't FBI/NSA/CIA/?? jail Steve Ballmer, as his ethics are dead and have been for long time. I also suspect that he is insane, as he is known to throw chairs around in dangerous ways.
Perhaps because former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo's son, Dare, works at Microsoft.
Dare is a nice guy, very smart, and he is even a (former?) slashdotter; however, he has been at Microsoft for like 4 years now. Maybe he has finally assimilated.
What they will probably get is a localized version of Windows, Word, WMP, etc. With a lot of extra help for the novice PC user.
For a reality check on the state of Linux in Nigeria: Nigerian Linux User Group
The first Lady CLE in Africa: Linux girl bags first Novell Certification in Nigeria [September 2005]
Mandriva opens office in West Africa [January 2007]
Linux Academy of Nigeria has not started training and I have not found someone who knows when they will start. [July 2007]
Neither, the point of OLPC was to provide hardware, software, and content support for a particular model of education around which the XO's hardware and software and associated content have been developed. Openness, in the OSS sense, supports both flexibility for the user of the system and the model of education that the OLPC is centered around (though it is neither strictly necessary to nor sufficient for that model.)
The Classmates with Mandriva that Nigeria purchased were not from OLPC, and arguably are less well suited to that model (perhaps because Nigeria had a different educational model in mind), and switching them to Windows makes them even less suited to the model the OLPC project is centered around. OTOH, if it doesn't work out, it will be cheaper to replace Mandriva -- and possibly even a build of the OLPC software stack with slight customization to address the different hardware -- than to replace the laptops with new laptops, though it would be a major headache.
The "supposed benefits" OLPC laptops are intended to deliver are not entirely independent of the software, as you suggest here. However, the OLPC project and laptops aren't more than tangentially relevant to this discussion anyway.
The Mandriva sale has nothing to do with the OLPC project. The OLPC laptops are not Classmates, and they aren't sold with Mandriva, but with a customized version of Fedora with Sugar. The letter from Mandriva might suggest that the entire point of the Mandriva effort in Nigeria was to promote their software and increase its exposure, which would make sense. It might also be the point of the letter to draw attention to possible corruption in the government of Nigeria.
And...so, what? If there is an appearance of corruption in a move such as that, whether it favors Microsoft of some competitor, why shouldn't their be a complaint?
First, the OLPC project has little to do with this, since the Intel Classmate hardware effort and Mandriva and Microsoft's software efforts in the developing world are all alternatives to the OLPC's hardware/software stack, and none of them are part of the OLPC project.
Second, people who are interesting in helping people are always promoting their own beliefs in doing so, and often have strong beliefs about what are the best ways to help people. Those aren't competing goals as you suggest; they are goals that are always interlinked.
Hum, 3rd-world government chooses easier to use and more widely used operating system for children's PCs after vendor offers it for free or at a substantial discount. Sounds like a good decision on Nigeria's part (unless, of course, it's Vista and their hardware can't handle it).
./'er, but I still wouldn't recommend it to my grandmother or to Nigerian children if Windows is an option. Linux has always been free or cheap, so Linux companies can't very well whine about MS (not M$, in this case) doing the same with their OS. Turnaround is always fair play.
And don't mod me as a troll. I love Linux as much as the next
The problem is, Windows like a free puppy--cute and cuddly but it requires massive investments in time and training, You also have to consider the support costs and (virus) medical bills and all the (non-free application) food you have to pay. And when, the puppy makes a mess on your carpet or "eats your homework", you have only yourself to blame.
Linux, OTOH is free like free-will. The more you exercise it, the more you have. As long as you don't become too complacent and let others (proprietary vendors) make your decisions for you "just this one time" (famous last words), your costs will go down in the long term as you're able to do things you previously weren't able to (because you have the source and new opportunities exist where none existed before).
The problem most people and companies and countries face now is that they've been convinced that being complacent is actually good for them. "Don't worry about the details", they're told, "it's all handled for you in your best interests. Honest.". The problem is, the details *are* important and end up biting you when your interests conflict with theirs (forced upgrades, forced obsolescence, silent changes, silent feature removals, vendor lock-in, inflexibility, increased support costs that you have to accept, privacy).
Your post *was* pretty lame.
Mandriva is definitely not for me. I'm not buying any distro whose name is dangerously close to "mangina"
Come on, who'd be dumb enough to fall for a cock and bull story like that?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The Nigerian government simply discovered $47.5 Million in a suspense account at The Central Bank Of Nigeria Apex Bank that had resulted from an over-invoiced contract, executed, commissioned and paid for about five years (5) ago by a foreign contractor. Best part is, they only had to promise Ballmer 20% of the funds, with 5% going to fees, and they kept the other 75%. Ballmer simply gave them his personal bank account number....
I always enjoy reading a well thought out, concise opinion on /.
The cancel button is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it.
The reason why Microsoft paid/bribed/whatever they did to get Nigeria to replace linux with Windows on the laptops is control. The ruling class couldn't have millions of children growing up with and learning an operating system which gives control and freedom to the users. I think Nigeria's future planned by the ruling class is to be one of the labor countries for the aristocracy in the planned one world government/new world order. Servants for the greedy overlords. Having millions of computers without DRM and the closed systems of Windows would not enable the ruling class to control the information and education of the servant class countries. That's what the fight for net-neutrality is also about.
Microsoft has for a long time targeted youth in an attempt to create lifelong customers. I bet Nigeria got a sweet deal. Even if MS loses money on this venture how much do they stand to make in the long run? I know many corporate types that follow the creed, "Winning isn't everyting, it's the only thing." I'm sure Steve B. is not losing sleep over having deprived the school children of Nigeria the opportunity to use Linux (in this instance).
How will I tell the difference between the real and fake money deals now that the Nigerians will have spell check?
Which application did you use to generate the message?
This point was hinted at in a few post but I am just going to say it. This just points out the mind share not money is the most important thing in the developing world. Who ever wins that wins the future and Microsoft is scared that it might not be them.
B5 71 ED FB 55 D6 4E 68 07 25 E2 FA CA 93 F0 2F, is mine! All mine!
Maybe it is enhanced government fees.
Oh... I see - so THAT'S the Nigerian Scam 8-)
It takes a huge amount of bravery to stand up to the puling hordes of the Stallmanistas. The Nigerian government simply became convinced that having their children grow up only knowing a third-rate operating system would effectively cripple them in the world-wide marketplace.
Why eat mad-cow brains when you can have steak? It just doesn't make sense, and Nigeria came to realize that.
Another great thing about the deal: if Nigerians are employed to install Windows on those machines, it will give some of them valuable experience of Windows, from beginning to end. That is a worthwhile job skill, unlike knowing how to install one of the billions of different flavors of Teh Lunix.
The Nigerians need those Windows machines to keep that Nigerian spam coming!
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
nigeriacraft confirms it, Mandriva is dead
It sounds like quite a complicated issue to me.
I think most people responding to this story are focusing a bit too much on the their own expectations, from the perspective of relatively transparent societies, and are ignoring that this is Nigeria. Nigeria is placed at 147th equal (of 179) in the Transparency International Corruption Perception's Index with an impressive score of 2.2/10, give or take 0.2 either way. Libya, for that matter, rates at 131st equal with a score of 2.5/10.
These are countries where bribery of corrupt officials is necessary simply to make the world go around and to get anything done at all. It's expected, and it's a perk of getting a position with power, for which the salary is probably low due to the expectation that bribes will be a major part of a person's income. People in power get ahead by being corrupt, it's treated as normal because it's widespread that it's difficult to get rid of, and the concept of corruption being bad really is a foreign concept to anyone in power.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if Microsoft bribed Nigerian and Libyan officials, either directly or indirectly. I also don't think it's too much to suggest that bribery was likely to have been part of the process of getting anything there in the first place, open source or not.
This isn't specifically an issue of Microsoft being corrupt to get their product in the door. It's an issue of Microsoft playing by the rules put forward by the government that it's dealing with. Those rules basically say that whoever has the most money and can get it to the right people wins. Which contract is better for the people who actually live in Nigeria and Libya is irrelevant. It's completely unfair, but it's also the only realistic way to get a lot of things to happen at all, until the corruption issue is sorted out.
Relatively transparent governments are a luxury that we're too used to, but it doesn't really work that way in a place like Nigeria. It's bad for Mandriva, it's even worse for the people who actually live there, but this will keep happening until the corruption is actually sorted out, if ever.
Other industries (Oil definitely springs to mind) have a lot of experience in dealing with corrupt regimes, since they've been doing it for decades and people in western societies don't really care as it doesn't affect them. Perhaps this is getting noticed so much because the tech industry is relatively new to dealing with corrupt countries.
Hey Nigeria, how's it feel to get raped? If you wanted to use windows so bad, you should have just gone here: http://playonlineflashgames.net/game/3607/Windows-RG.html (probably the only recent version that will run reasonably well on those machines)
Hyperbole much? I purchase software whenever I see a value-to-cost-to-time ratio that makes sense. I think "bits in a box" are perfectly OK if they provide a valid service. For example, I bought a simple $14.50 shareware sync app instead of spending eight hours trying to figure out how Unison works. This is called choice.
Can I accomplish the same things with Unison? I'm sure I could. Do I want to climb the learning curve just to sync a couple of folders to my USB flash drive every couple of days? Nope. I paid $15 instead. Oh noes, my human rights are being violated. I don't know how that furthers "M$ domination", but whatever. You are clearly out of touch with how and why people use computers.
BTW, that "quality applications that are cost free and easily modified to suit any particular purpose" comes across as bogus and sponsored, and it makes you sound like Microsoft marketing. That's irony for you.
Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
vi is better than emacs. There. I said it.
Bribery and corruption is just a fact of life in most of the world. I have been living in a developing nation for over a year now, and I can say from experience that most Slashdotters who are writing from the U.S. or Europe have no idea how endemic, and even accepted, corruption is outside the West. If the allegation were true, it would not be the least bit surprising to the average Nigerian.
Microsoft would not bribe the Nigerian government. They would bribe a few well-placed officials, then charge the Nigerian government enough to cover both their costs and their bribes and earn a tidy profit.
Supposing the alleged allegation is true, the winners would Microsoft and a few Nigerian decision-makers. The losers would be the Nigerian taxpayers and/or, if costs were passed on to the schools that use the computers, the children.
However, if a bribe were given, under the FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act), someone at Microsoft would be criminally liable. U.S. citizens who bribe overseas government officials are subject to prosecution at home.
-- My choice of computing platform is a symbol of my individuality and belief in personal freedom.
Score 5, Flamebait?
These 4-digiters are really talented...
How about 500.000-600.000 (estimated) Laptops with Vista + Office 2007! Let me explain.
;-), our "smart" government decided to provide laptops and internet access to teachers, students and adults who came back to school - most of it will be paid by some compensation due from holders of GSM and 3G licenses, TMN, Optimus, Vodafone. The laptop models proposed, toshiba and fujitsu-siemens entry models mostly, have adequate specs (e.g. Toshiba L40: 15.4" screen, Dual Core 1.46GHz, 1GiB RAM, 80GB HDD, DVD Writer, WiFi, Wireless Broadband GSM/3G - from www.tmn.pt, choose "e.escola" on the left and "portátil & Banda Larga"). Google "e.escola" or check out the faq if you can read Portuguese. They state that these are 700-800 models but I suspect that with such volume deals they can shave 100-200 off the price, at least!
;-) - if you are curious, google "Government Leaders Forum (GLF) in Lisbon".
Here in Portugal, Europe
Some people will receive the machines for free and pay 5 monthly for internet, others pay 150 and have 5 shaved off internet monthly bill of 22.5 (some variations in-between depending on assorted conditions, like income etc.) Sounds good?
The catch is that the providers/"partners" for hardware/software have been pre-selected, no choice here, no public international bidding - we are talking about 500.000 machines after all! People have to stay 3 years in the program - what sounded like a good deal means for most people ~780 (22.5 - 5 x 36 + 150) over 3 years, most of it for (overpriced IMO) internet access at "up to" 384 Kbps/1GB download limit - want to download more, pay for it. I'm assuming here the reduced price is over the 3 year period, some people only get the first year.
This is not Nigeria, this is Portugal. So why? Because it's a win-win situation.
The government gets improved statistics concerning broadband internet penetration (currently approx. 500.000 users for wireless access, it will double with this project) and the number of computers at households; the opportunity for numerous propaganda events; and an opportunity to kiss MS ass, again
The GSM/3G providers get to double their market; tie customers for longer periods of time through a guaranteed program of subsidized equipment sponsored by the government, to the point where you have the prime minister himself delivering computers! And also an excuse not to lower voice calls and internet access prices.
MS gets some more Vista + Office 2007 install stats; some more pocket lining; success case to nag other countries with.
Some Portuguese will get a new computer, a 3 year "loan"/debt and an obsolete computer by the end of if. And "broadband" internet access, hopefully...
But that is not the end of it. A 400 million euro program will follow, to place (overpriced and mostly useless without content to make use of it, IMO) interactive computerized boards in schools; improve ADSL access rates and coverage; provide 1 computer per 2 students, IIRC.
Guess who is going to profit from it...
Good at least the people there are smarter than most /. posters!
Look, humans make assumptions all the time based on limited information. We use a number of tools to do this, but one of the most common tends to be "if it has happened once before, it is likely to happen again."
There is no doubt that MS has used its powers for evil in the past to kill a competitor through methods that result in "serious charges". So, I ask you - honestly - is it more likely or less likely that the same organization is doing it again in this case?
To many, many people, the answer is 'more likely'.
Why don't the Mandriva people write a complaint to the US government accusing Microsoft of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act? Historically, before the current administration and when the executive branch even sometimes believed in rule of law, the US DoJ has not been kind to US companies and their officers who have succeeded in foreign countries by corrupt means.
Want to see Steve Ballmer, or more likely some scapegoat underling, in federal prison? Now's your chance. Get some resources together to investigate how this happened, pin it on them, and land their ass in jail.
They only just found out that 419 software won't run under Wine.