Microsoft Pushes Windows To Battle Linux In Africa

ThousandStars writes "According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft has been making a concerted effort to promote Windows in Africa, pushing Windows over Linux in very poor countries that haven't been locked into a single operating system. From the article: 'To that end, it has established a presence in 13 countries, donated Windows for thousands of school computers, and funded programs for entrepreneurs and the young. It also has used aggressive business tactics, some aimed at its biggest threat in the region: Linux ...'"

Comments

multi-billion dollar product/marketing vs um, free

[Locutus]

wow, isn't it great that a company who's poured billions into developing a product and spends millions monthly marketing it has to 'ramp up' marketing against the free product in order to get people and businesses to use it?

Way to go Microsoft. But after MS Vista and considering your handheld OS( Windows Mobile ) still crashes regularly on phones, do you really think you can keep this up forever? Smart move going after those very poor and mostly unconnected to the outside world. They'll have little to compare your product to until they eventually get online and see/read how good GNU/Linux is, how cheap it is, and how easy it is to use. Because as soon as they find out and unless their incomes have increased dramatically, they'll switch or have to revert to piracy to stay with your Windows products. Products that are probably already close to 10 years old. Hello Windows XP, I'm talking about you and your new life on computers not capable of running your new brother, Windows Vista.

Ya gotta love it when a company must keep paying people to use their products. Especially when the alternative is something originally put together by a whole bunch of people in their spare time. Ouch, that's still gotta be pissing olde Steve Ballmer off. But then again, he's used to paying people to use their products since they've had to do this for like 20 years. IMO

LoB