Slashdot Mirror
Nigerian Government Nixes Microsoft's Mandriva Block
An anonymous reader writes "After trying to bribe a local supplier with a $400,000 marketing contract, Microsoft has still apparently lost out in trying to woo Nigeria's government to use Windows over Linux. Microsoft threw the money at the supplier after it chose Mandriva Linux for 17,000 laptops for school children across Nigeria. The supplier took the bait and agreed to wipe Mandriva off the machines, but now Nigeria's government has stepped in to stop the dirty deal."
Microsoft really did try to Bribe them. That's crazy. I hope this makes the mainstream media.
You know you're corrupt when the government of Nigeria steps in to block your shady deal.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
I wished they pay me to use Windows...
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
And I thought they successfully bribed the government. :)
Heh, apparently there are still honest people in there!
Now just let's hope Mandriva doesn't screw it and their machines actually work
There goes 400k for bad publicity for M$.
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
That Microsoft didn't even try to push their new OS.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
My name is Stephen Ballmer I am the Chair Executive of William Gates of Redmond in the United State of America. I am contacting you with regard to transfer of a huge sum of laptops from the OLPC project. Though I know that a transaction of this magnitude will make any one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you that everything has been taken care off, and all will be well at the end of the day. I decided to contact you due to the urgency of this transaction.
Good thing is is not Unix... It is Linux.
:)
To be realistice Windows 2000 and Up have been rather stable reliable systems... So if you were a spammer you will be able to get out just as many spams with windows as you would with Linux or Unix. Secondly Linux can be downloaded for free so if windows sucked that bad they will use Linux.
It is not like we are giving them Macs... [Ducks]
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I'm dying to hear what do those people that tried to defend M$ on the last story about this subject have to say. And you also owe apologies to Mandriva CEO, too...
You are joking, right? There are some fairly large countries where people have to use Windows in English (a language many don't understand) because Microsoft has decided that it wouldn't be profitable to translate Windows into the local language.
Just an hour back there was this story about MSFT including some game vendor's malformed copy protection driver for six year into every damn computer in the world. What percentage of them played that software? Why a corporate server that might end up in a blade rack without even have a dedicated monitor or mouse got this driver? Why are the corporations not demanding full disclosure of what dlls are needed and what are not? Why isn't there a third party service that will advice corporations which components of Windows could be safely removed by looking at the company policies and use patterns?
As long as the customers accept everything dished out by MSFT patiently, there is nothing we can do to make it change. Education of the customers is the most important thing if we are going to rescue computing from this monoculture.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
How dare they bribe a non-gov official! But seriously, I'd love to see Penguins take over the world.
See what happens when you cheap out? A few million bucks in the Swiss bank accounts of some high government officials would, I'm sure, have smoothed the shiny golden road to a stunning African Vista.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Nigeria's government has stepped in to stop the dirty deal.
I am not a lawyer, in Nigeria or anywhere else, but is this deal really "dirty"?
The article tells us little:
"After public statements from Mandriva officials implied the marketing deal is legally questionable, Microsoft said last week that it complies with international law and the law of the countries in which it operates."
Mandriva can "imply" that the deal is "legally questionable", but this tells us nearly nothing about the actual legal situation.
Setting aside reflexive Microsoft-bashing, this may be a case of business as usual, legitimately within the scope of the law.
Until someone clarifies the matter by citing actual law, "dirty" seems like an overstatement to me.
-kgj
-kgj
I learned that Mandriva is a French outfit. So, perhaps a handiwork of Sarkozy?
Now that the dirty deal is uncovered, the first question is:
"If this were done in the US, would it be considered illegal?"
The next question would be:
"If yes, then should Microsoft be prosecuted?"
Further:
"If not, then why not?"
And for all the Microsoft apologists:
"Is this sort of behavior acceptable from your favorite software vendor/publisher/distributor, business partner? And if so, why is it acceptable? If not, please elaborate?"
The Nigerian officials are just upset the supplier is the one being bribed and not them :)
The way it works is that the people in Nigeria send you money. I'm waiting on my 5% commission for moving $48,000,000,000 right now!
Ever since the Lockheed bribery scandal, its been illegal for US citizens or corporations to bribe anyone, anywhere in the world, same as its illegal for them to engage in pedophilia abroad.
So, how much $$$ (campaign contributions - the only "legal" bribe) Microsoft is going to spend to "make this go away"?
Kevin Smith on Prince
Seriously, you have a very good point. That is the way business is done in some third world countries. They don't consider it wrong. Anyone with power expects to be paid, much like waitresses expect to be tipped here.
Microsoft apparently failed to pay all of the right people.
No "bribery" here, just two companies making an agreement. Sure, Microsoft's motivation is to move more software over a competitor, but why is that a problem? If Microsoft wants to discount its software or given the company some other benefit, then whatever.
It's called "dumping", and in the U.S., is illegal when conducted by a monopolist. It also tend to violate a variety of world trade rules.
Furthermore, even if one can construe a scenario where it is legal (international run around the law?), it is extremely underhanded and a waste of government resources (they'd be paying for Windows and Linux).
As such, here are the issues:
1. It's probably illegal, and should be, but I'm not a lawyer.
2. Even if its not illegal, its shady business. And it demonstrates more and more than no sane company should get into bed with Microsoft, because Microsoft will do anything and everything to screw you.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
"'We are sticking with that platform,' said the official, who would not give his name.
The organisation reserves the right to choose whichever platform is best for Nigerian students, which could also include Microsoft's software in the future, said the official."
Does anyone else get the impression that's code for: "$400,000 would go a long way in convincing me that Microsoft's software is best for Nigerian students."? Sounds like Microsoft just forgot to include Nigerian officials in on the deal.
Ummmm
The company shipping the laptops took money to wipe out Mandriva and ship with Windows.
So, I have a contract with you to buy 10000 widgets painted in red Du Point paint. And, 3m pays you money to paint them in a 3m yellow. Is that OK?
This isn't a "dirty" deal in what way?? It's doing an end run around the people they have a contract with. They did not have a contract with Microsoft, and Microsoft did not have standing to alter the terms of the contract.
I would call this dirty. Hell, I'd call it fraud.
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Man, people these days...
I know that there is common misunderstanding and false assumption that bribery is only possible in government level. No, in business world it happens even more frequently and it IS illegal (Even if some business people would like to think otherwise). I won't get into details how much laws Microsoft broke with doing this, but please, people, keep that in mind - business or government level, such actions are illegal and can get your sorry ass to the courtroom in any country.
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
Yes, this is a P.R. disaster in the making, in more ways than one.
The best way to predict the future is to create it. - Peter Drucker.
These countries building their technologies need to try at least to understand the negative impact of vendor lock in. With open source the road is full bright and open, like a true vista. With windows you condemn your nation to Microsoft's spyware. (As Vista has 47 programs that collect information about you and send it back to Microsoft, not counting the WGA/WGN. This process is essentially the equivalent of say having Walmart coming to your home on any given Sunday morning asking to search your belongings to ensure that those items in your home that come from Walmart are legally purchased, just because you are a shopper at Walmart. Because Microsoft does it with hidden programs (or hidden cameras) makes no difference. You wouldn't allow Walmart to place hidden cameras in your home).
We all know about the vendor lock ins such as DirectX which keep you playing on and paying for Windows. With true OpenGL development you could find games on a number of platforms. There are many more lock in technologies and DRM was Microsoft's most important one until everyone revolted over it. It is still their number one hope to lock you into the Windows platform.
So, let's hope that Nigeria has the experienced personnel in the right positions of influence capable of understanding what is happening to ensure that it doesn't happen there. If so, let's hope other regional governments learn from the negatives of vendor lock in and the sometimes illegal influences Microsoft exerts.
90% of all people can benefit from Linux in that it does what those people need it to do, day in and day out. It is solid, safe, trusted, proven, performs very well, and is attractive. Most of the popular distros have taken the approach of ease of use for the customer, the development cycle for open source is superior to the closed source development cycle. The access to the programming code is also an incredible benefit unavailable (likely never will be available) to the government and the peoples of the world, whereas with open source if there's a conflict bug you can look at both project's code and resolve your issue yourself (as a programmer for some group).
Hopefully we'll see that other governments understand that it is important to put measures into place that secure them from the influences and lock ins created by using Microsoft products.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
... as if 17.000 chairs cried in despair and then suddenly were silenced.
In fact, the statement "Microsoft complies with law" is demonstrably false. The courts have spoken.
I for one am very happy to see this stopped! I grew up in a "third world" county (Belize), when my siblings and I joined our parents in the US, I recall one of the first things they did was get us a computer (CoCo 2). I wouldn't be where I am today if they had not (good job and my own little project http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html/ ). While I did do some growing up on Windows, it has been almost 9 years since I switched to using Linux exclusively at home. As someone that grew up in a developing nation, I firmly believe there is no better option for it that FLOSS.
Education and technology can level the playing field. Perhaps in the first world, we can afford to argue about the merits of FLOSS vs closed source. However, this isn't the case when you are worried about where your next meal is coming from or if you can afford to vaccinate your child. The Gates Foundation could really show it's altruism by helping to support OLPC or the Classmate PC.
Cecil
When the source is open, the possibilities are endless.
Your statement so wrong. From the Article:"In fact, Intel has tested and certified three operating systems for the Classmate PC: Mandriva Linux, Metasys Linux and Microsoft Windows XP Pro." So it has been tested and it works. Mod me down if you want, but your statement will still be wrong.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
12345
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Big corporations bribing government officials, i've seen this a million times, i'm brazilian... Just recently it was Cisco in Brazil http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/16/2334253 and now MS in Nigeria. I've only seen people been arrested or fired, couldn't the corporation be fined or something? Apart from theirs reputation, the corporation itself in the end is clean to continue doing its dirty business...
I must admit that I thought corruption was a problem of the 3rd world alone. But now, we see that a [major] US corporation was perpetuating corruption.
Finally got tired of living under a rock, huh?
So what is going to happen to all of the money?
Fortunately, I happen to have a contact at the Technology Support Centre who has offered to cut me in for a 40% share if I can help him get the money out of Nigeria. He contacted me personally on this highly confidential financial transaction after my having been recommended by an associate in confidence of my ability and reliability...
Actually, Microsoft's localization is pretty good compared to some of the FOSS projects I've seen, not that it excuses Microsoft for other bad behavior. And no country must use Windows in English unless they really want to. There are good and viable choices other than Windows for all but the most obscure languages. See the planetlimux.org site for one interesting adaptation in municipal government as an example.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Why is this even a story? Oh, because it's Microsoft trying to outcompete a Linux supplier, therefore, it's intrinsically evil.
Evil, NO. Unethical, YES. No one likes a cheater.
What is your definition of competition? A kickback or bribe includes any item intended to improperly obtain favorable treatment. Why didn't Microsoft just lower the per unit license cost to match Mandrakes? Are you saying that on a level playing field, Windows looses to Linux?
From the article:
Mba-Uzoukwu wrote that Microsoft is still negotiating an agreement that would give TSC US$400,000 (£190,323) for marketing activities around the Classmate PCs when those computers are converted to Windows.
Where have I heard this before? Oh Yeah, the anti-trust hearing:
In addition, Plaintiffs are concerned that there is some confusion among OEMs relating to the application of certain portions of the MDA to OEM advertisements for computers containing non-Microsoft operating systems. Pursuant to the MDA, Microsoft provides marketing funds -- in the form of discounts on the price the OEM pays for each copy of Windows -- to OEMs whose print advertisements and websites promote Microsoft's operating systems in a manner specified by Microsoft.
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f205700/205751.htm
Enjoy,
It's just the normal noises in here.
Not only is it illegal in business, but taking a bribe often results in you being professionally incompetent.
If you worked for me, and i gave you the task of "Book me the best value business-class flight to australia"...
Let's say the best value would be Qantas, and they would fly me direct to australia business class for $4000...
But you received a bribe from United, who paid you $1000 to buy a ticket from them instead...
Their ticket costs $6000 and has a stopover half way, and thus takes longer.
You would benefit from the $1000 bribe, United would benefit from a sale. I would lose out on my time and $2000, because you used my money to buy me an inferior (slower) service that costs more.
You didn't do your job properly.
You wasted my money for your own personal benefit, you effectively stole from me and gave it to United, in exchange for a cut of it back.
Taking a bribe to spend someone else's money is fraud, and should be prosecuted accordingly. Also whoever actually took the bribe is not doing their job properly regardless of the law, and should be fired.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
Friday morning at 10:00 pdt, I filed a complaint with the Washington State AG.
***
Microsoft is bribing "Technology Support Center (TSC)" a Nigerian computer company with $400,000.00 to install Windows after TSC already bought an operating system. To get around the word "bribe" they are calling it "marketing activities".
***
I'm sorta tired about the XP bashing.
I've used XP for quite some time now, willingly (I'm too lazy to deal with wine, drivers and the like and I like Portal...) and with exceptions of power outages or certain installs, I've managed uptimes in the 100+ day realm. Current record's 180 that was ruined by an above outage.
Course, the obvious difference between me and a regular user is I use common sense when surfing the net. No fancy animated cursors, no banzai buddy, no new.net shit.
Windows XP, in my personal experience, can be a very stable, reliable operating system. And for me, it just. works. Now if you've got someone doing all the above shit, of course you're going to tank your OS. BUT if they wanted to do all the same crap on a Linux box, I'd bet they'd find a way to tank that too. All boils down to the user.
That in mind, I'm not touching the Exchange comment. I know better.
This is bizarre, particularly considering the history of monopolies in the US. In a monopoly situation, the customer simply has no choice. The market no longer moderates "what's fair" and "what's not fair".
There are other forms of anti-competitive behavior that are also in the "what's not fair" even if consumers may not be aware of it. Price fixing and dumping come to mind.
The perfect market you seem to have in mind doesn't exist and cannot exist.
Microsoft controls somewhere in the neighborhood of 90% of desktops worldwide. That's a textbook monopoly, and the rules changes for monopolies. Note that merely being a monopoly is not in and of itself illegal, but it does mean that the allowable range of actions changes. If Apple has a secretive, closed development model, it's not creating problems for consumers, but when Microsoft does, it does effect consumers.
Now go back to Redmond, you pathetic Microsoft shill.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I want to mod you troll, but you're exactly right. So I'll reply to you instead and remove the temptation.
XP is genuinely a fairly competent system. If you like closed source. And six-year-old privilege-escalation vulnerabilities. And Defective Restriction Management. And a vendor that tries to destroy every free alternative to their product with BS patent/copyright lawsuits. And supporting a convicted monopolist. And...
Also, how on earth do you have such high uptime if every monthly patch requires a reboot? You're not...unpatched, are you?
Just another "DOJ fascist authoritarian totalitarian bootlicker" -- Zeio
It's not a bribe--there is no individual that is receiving the money. Instead, Microsoft would spend $$ marketing the TCS's classmate PC in Africa (if they choose windows).
Things like this occur in businesses every day in America. This is neither illegal or even shady. As usual the slashdot summary is slightly biased.
XP is fairly stable on its own. From the point of view of a regular user, it's not too bad.
/etc, a package list, and off you go reinstalling quite easily.
The problems I have with it are more of a technical point of view, about how it's not very solid, hard to troubleshoot, how to cure it if it gets borked (especially by spyware or trojans), and how stupidly hard it is to reinstall and make the new install workable. The inability to transfer software from one installation to another is very annoying. The way everything is stored in monolithic files which can only be edited through the MS interface (the registry) is a constant issue. If it gets corrupted or deleted, you're fucked. There are ways to recover, but it's not simple, and doesn't always work.
Comparatively, on a Mac OS X machine, I can backup 3 folders and I get everything: apps, data, configurations. If a pref gets hosed, it's a single text file which I can consult, edit, or delete (similar to how it is on Linux which I also like a lot). I can rebuild an OS X machine in little more than an hour, whereas Windows reinstalls take easily 3 hours including the entire patching process (which even starting from SP2 is over 100 updates now), and most software isn't even installed at that point, where with OS X, 99% of the software that I backed up is functional.
It's not quite as good, but almost on a Linux machine. grab $home,
If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
And not just "when done in the US". If its done anywhere in the world with the intent (even if its not the only intent) of reinforcing a US monopoly (such as, say, by preventing broader global adoption of Linux which would put pressure on US marketshare as more desirable software was available exclusively for Linux, providing an incentive for people to switch from Windows) it can violate US antitrust law.
Have you ever considered piracy? You'd make a wonderful Dread Pirate Roberts.
I wish I could mod Tom Lantos up, insightful. Bribery is wrong, no matter where it's done. Getting ahead financially at the expense of morality does the world no good, and it ought to have repercussions. Engaging in bribery because the country you're doing it in doesn't object just makes you a moral pygmy.
I disagree. On Linux, I can create an account, install any software I want to run into my home directory, install all forms of spyware and malware, and if I really mess things up, worse case scenario is to delete the home directory and start again. On Windows, you need admin access to install most programs (based on what I've seen of coworkers without admin access).
In other words, the design of a *nix system seems to me to be much more stable for the system overall.
Thank God for evolution.
Hehe, I had a Nigerian colleague once, and after some talks with him I told my Dutch friend who lives in America that bribery in America might even be worse than in Nigeria. "Yes," he told me, "but here it's legalized!"
-- Cheers!
Bah. Late to the party, as usual, hope more than 3 people read this. Let me share a story... it's been over 5 years already, so I hope I don't get into trouble for sharing it.
Picture a budding "third world" country, but one a little closer to the south of the border: Guatemala. Also picture a huge, monolithic Gov't institution, the Ministry of Education, where a small, dedicated team has been assigned a major project: switching all of the Ministry's PCs to Linux. This meant not only the PCs in the administrative buildings, but also the computers in every school in the country. Which in reality wasn't that huge of a project, because it's a smallish country, and at the time few schools had PCs for the kids.
Still, it was a very exciting project! We sincereley felt that what we were beginning could have a very positive impact in the lives of Guatemalan kids, exposing them early on to the advantages (and difficulties, too!) of the gospel of Open Source. But we soon ran into trouble. The hardware was hopelessly outdated -- note we didn't have the advantage of Xubuntu and other nice modern end-user distros for legacy HW, plus we met with serious and organized resistance from the many Ministry bureaucrats who decided they weren't going to give up the Microsoft OS they barely knew how to operate.
We soldiered on nonetheless, for a couple more weeks at least. But we could tell a storm was brewing at the higher ranks. Sure enough, the project gets axed, and a head or two rolls. Technical reasons were claimed, but we techs knew very well that the technical hurdles could've been overcome. Rumors abounded, and we all had our own suspicions. My own suspicions were confirmed when I had the chance to talk to a senior management guy who had managed to keep his job, who told me in no uncertain terms that Microsoft was very directly responsible for the project's cancellation, by courting Gov't officials and offering a generous "discount" on the many licenses the Ministry needed to fully comply with the law -- most of the Ministry's Windows PCs were illegal installations in the first place. And also, that palms had indeed been greased -- no proof, of course, but knowing how most (yes, most!) Gov't deals go down here would have been enough for me to believe this, but the confirmation by that bureaucrat left me with no doubt.
Cut to 5 years later. Millions were poured into the "legalization" of thousands of the Ministry's PCs, but the benefits for the average schoolkid remain to be seen. I often wonder what this country's schools would look like today if greed hadn't gotten in the way.. but sadly that's a recurring theme in corrupt countries. MS has a lot to answer for, in my humble opinion.
anon because this is still a very dangerous country
Duel CPU : you closest group of friends : form a Slashdot effect : actualy : havent : delt : Adition : non Zealously : preconsived : actaully : useing : simular : desinged : then I have
You know, I don't like to judge people by the odd spelling mistake or bit of dodgy grammar. We all make mistakes and it's not like spelling is generally all that important in making your writing understandable. However the number of spelling mistakes in your post (I won't even start on the grammar) makes you sound like an idiot. If you have dyslexia or English isn't your mother tongue, use a spell checker, if you're just stupid then don't post.
I completely agree, but why the hell would you give the keys to any old person who walks into the prison? You can agrue now that you should just turn off admin privileges and you can no longer run into this sort of problem, but how many people who use Windows know how to do that, not only that but how many people do you think know that it is even possible? I like Linux because (at least in the distros I have installed and used) you aren't admin to begin with, and being a Linux noob it was a pain to figure out how to become root and do various things. This hopefully prevents the "idiot user" from destroying anything and if they try to figure out how to become root they get plenty (in my case at least) of warnings of why they need to be VERY careful. Just my two cents anyway.