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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 ...'"
for giving me the first post. :D
Linux is like the electric car, not a chance and only in a few places..
The first hit is always free.
Is it possible to read the entire story without subscribing to the Wall Street Journal? How am I supposed to RTFA if I don't have a subscription?
Why is this thus? What is the reason for this thusness?
They didn't say they were running Windows.
It's Microsoft, nobody expects you to RTFA.
using someone else's (your) money. yeah, it's kind of like that.
greed, fear & ego (in any order) are unprecedented evile's primary weapons. those, along with deception & coercion, helps most of us remain (unwittingly?) dependent on its' life0cidal hired goons' agenda. most of yOUR dwindling resources are being squandered on the 'wars', & continuation of the billionerrors stock markup FraUD/pyramid schemes. nobody ever mentions the real long term costs of those debacles in both life & any notion of prosperity for us, or our children, not to mention the abuse of the consciences of those of us who still have one. see you on the other side of it. the lights are coming up all over now. conspiracy theorists are being vindicated. some might choose a tin umbrella to go with their hats. the fairytail is winding down now. let your conscience be yOUR guide. you can be more helpful than you might have imagined. there are still some choices. if they do not suit you, consider the likely results of continuing to follow the corepirate nazi hypenosys story LIEn, whereas anything of relevance is replaced almost instantly with pr ?firm? scriptdead mindphuking propaganda or 'celebrity' trivia 'foam'. meanwhile; don't forget to get a little more oxygen on yOUR brain, & look up in the sky from time to time, starting early in the day. there's lots going on up there.
we note that yahoo deletes some of its' (relevant) stories sooner than others. maybe they're short of disk space, or something?
http://news.google.com/?ncl=1216734813&hl=en&topic=n
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/09/23/what.matters.thirst/index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/31/opinion/31mon1.html?em&ex=1199336400&en=c4b5414371631707&ei=5087%0A
(deleted)http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080918/ap_on_re_us/tent_cities;_ylt=A0wNcyS6yNJIZBoBSxKs0NUE
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/29/world/29amnesty.html?hp
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/02/nasa.global.warming.ap/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/06/05/severe.weather.ap/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/06/02/honore.preparedness/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/09/28/what.matters.meltdown/index.html#cnnSTCText
http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/books/10/07/atwood.debt/index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/opinion/01dowd.html?em&ex=1212638400&en=744b7cebc86723e5&ei=5087%0A
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/05/senate.iraq/index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/washington/17contractor.html?hp
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/03/world/middleeast/03kurdistan.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
(deleted, still in google cache)http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080708/cheney_climate.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20080805/pl_politico/12308;_ylt=A0wNcxTPdJhILAYAVQms0NUE
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/18/voting.problems/index.html
(deleted)http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080903/ts_nm/environment_arctic_dc;_ylt=A0wNcwhhcb5It3EBoy2s0NUE
(talk about cowardlly race fixing/bad theater/fiction?) http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/19/news/economy/sec_short_selling/index.htm?cnn=yes
http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=ApTbxRfLnscxaGGuCocWlwq7YWsA/SIG=11qicue6l/**http%3A//biz.yahoo.com/ap/081006/meltdown_kashkari.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/opinion/04sat1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
(the teaching of hate as a way of 'life' synonymous with failed dictatorships) http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081004/ap_on_re_us/newspapers_islam_dvd;_ylt=A0wNcwWdfudITHkACAus0NUE
(some yoga & yogurt makes killing/getting killed less stressful) http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081007/ap_on_re_us/warrior_mind;_ylt=A0wNcw9iXutIPkMBwzGs0NUE
(the old bait & switch...your share of the resulting 'product' is a fairytail nightmare?)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081011/ap_on_bi_ge/where_s_the_money;_ylt=A0wNcwJGwvFIZAQAE6ms0NUE
is it time to get real yet? A LOT of energy is being squandered in attempts to keep US in the dark. in the end (give or take a few 1000 years), the creators will prev
When has reading or thinking stopped any slashdotter from a good anti-MS ranting?
A rich Nigerian prince gave them 25 million dollars because they helped him transfer some funds. Microsoft gave him copies of Windows in return.
...Microsoft is using underhanded business tactics to ensure that their operating system is the most widely used? This is new.
WSJ get it wrong again:
Wrong. Linux is not a Windows alternative. Windows is a poor imitation of GNU/Linux.
See full article here
http://www.mediainfocenter.org/story.asp?story_id=122760705
Sell your MS licenses and most of the other tech on ebay. then use that money to buy books and pay for teachers.
It's far more important to teach basics like math, reading, basic science, hygiene, and life skills, than how to move and click a mouse.
What is it with people thinking that what the 3rd world needs are computers? What they need is clean water, learn better agriculture, and to get an education that will allow them to live a better life.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
And then you end up addicted to freedom and all you can play is tux racer.
They starve to death..that's Microsoft's plan.
Yeah, my karma sucks....but so do the mods.
I have yet to see Linux platform DELIVER ANYTHING the entire world wants to use, in an easy to manage, easy to interact with format. I tried installing redhat a few times back in the 90s and after banging my head a few times to actually get it working I thought to myself "Oh. Sweet. Free Civ and data management I DONT NEED."
And then Linux users go out of their way to do things like make World of Warcraft work on their PC. Look buddy. Ya great you got it working but you are very knowledgeable in Linux, which has a steep learning curve. And most users dont want to spend 2 weeks getting their drivers to work just right to play a game.
I guess what Im really saying is, most Linux/open source advocates do it for the rebellion not because they have a better product to promote. After all if your open source was a decent product, youd be able to SELL IT. And we've all seen how much of that is goin on right now.
And this has been another installament of Captain Obvious!
Later on, the article covers the Mandriva / Microsoft in Nigeria battle that was covered here before:
"TSC approached Mandriva SA, a French company that sells a Linux version. Believing Microsoft had offered its $3 package, Mandriva proposed a $3 price for a Linux operating system, plus about $2 for other software, say people familiar with the situation. In August 2007, TSC issued a purchase order for Mandriva Linux, and the laptop's Taiwanese manufacturer began loading it.
Microsoft continued to push Windows. It offered its XP and Office software for about $45 per machine, says Nyimbi Odero, then TSC's chief executive.
Mr. Odero says Microsoft wanted TSC to delete Linux from the initial shipments of Classmates. He says Microsoft proposed a way to "make it worth your while" through a joint-marketing agreement. According to a draft agreement Microsoft sent to TSC last Sept. 13, Microsoft would pay TSC to fund "certain marketing activities to encourage the sale and distribution" of Microsoft products. Mr. Odero says Microsoft made it clear that TSC wouldn't really be expected to market the products, but could keep the money as an incentive to replace Linux with Windows."
(for anyone who doesn't know, I work for Mandriva).
The first OS featuring a Jew Screen of Death.
I can't wait to see how Apple takes advantage of this:
PC: (pushing computers into African kids (starving))
Mac: Oh that's nice PC, I see you're donating to the needy in Africa
PC: Uh, yeah (suspiciously). This has nothing to with Vista finding a user base that is happy to have it.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
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
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
Is Microsoft really trying to help, is there even the pretense of this by their employees? Or does everyone, at the very least, agree that this is purely for the purpose of profit (which is ok if we don't pretend otherwise)
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you.
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do...
'a';DROP TABLE users; SELECT * FROM DATA WHERE name LIKE '%'... if you're reading this, it didn't work.
It has to be especially nettlesome since Microsoft managed to slowly strangle out all of its profit-driven competitors by the late '90s. Other than the boutique / couture PCs Apple offered, the only way to compete with Microsoft was with free software. There's no debating that it's taken Linux a long time to get into a competitive position on the desktop, but its flexibility and nimbleness are starting to overcome Microsoft's inertia and the sheer size and increasing unmanageable nature of the Windows codebase.
so so it's all very well and good giving them computers.. at least it gives them a chance to come on here and give us their opinion... BUT DON'T THEY NEED A CERTAIN ELECTRICITY SUPPLY FIRST??
this is a virtual insanity that always seems to be governed by our love for this useless twisting of our new technology.
And so MS is doing just like the gas companies: make the world addict to their product, brignin' the price VERY high, and when everybody is thinking about alternatives, lower the price or, in the case of MS, paying people to use the product.
I would have thought it's more like when Nestle pushed milk powder in Africa. (see second item) and here.
I'm picturing the battleground - Steve Ballmer against an army of the Ubuntu release name animals, led by Mark Shuttleworth on an African plain somewhere.
BUZZER !!!!! WRONG!
Been in Africa. The threat out there, honestly, isn't Linux. 'Coze - whatever they say about it - Linux is still not ready for the desktop. Specially in places where education is still a lagwagon. Don't expect anyone who can barely read to figure out why on earth their network isn't working, because their Linux distro doesn't support their cheapo noname network card.
Linux is not a threat to Windows in Africa. Pirated Windows is.
exactly. I was stunned when Windows Vista was released and it was not modularized like GNU/Linux or even Windows XP embedded. It did not scale down at all and that is enough evidence in my mind to see that they've bloated themselves into a big tumble downward. Pulling 8 year old tech, Windows XP, out of retirement to compete with GNU/Linux on the new-ish Ultra Mobile Devices(UMPs) was the next indicator but unfortunately, the press/media just brushed this off. It should be a big red flag showing how Microsoft does not have new technology to compete with GNU/Linux. More and more are seeing this so eventually they'll get it.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
I always thought that MS gained marketshare/dominance through piracy. And I sill believe that that piracy is much more relevant in the adoption of Windows in emerging markets than anything else by a long shot.
Even if other systems come pre-installed. I guess the situation is now different because a large number of machines will come preinstalled with a very useful and useable os, which could prompt people to not just install pirated version of Windows on these machines as soon as they get them.
Microsoft decided to battle Linux in Africa when it learned that it recieves 3 bonus armies for every turn in which it manages to hold the entire continent.
how Bill Gates and his "Foundation" (read: stock laundering scheme) are oh so concerned about the poor areas of the world - while the rip-off outfit that funded that Foundation steals the entire world blind.
It's a joke.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Microsoft pushes Windows in Africa...
Microsoft should be pushing mosquito netting in Africa - Windows will just let the Malarial mosquitoes in.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
Here are some statistics that might bring Microsoft's "charitable marketing" into perspective:
African GDP/capita (Currency): $671
African Population livingon under $1 per day: 36.2%
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Africa
Geographical Distributions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:GDP_PPP_Per_Capita_Worldmap_2008_CIA_Factbook.svg
"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." -Jesus Christ The Lord's Prayer
Microsoft shouldn't be giving schools computers,they should be giving these children and teachers there daily needs (Food, Water, Clothing, ect.). Also, I think Africa should be using Ubuntu as their main OS. For two reasons. One, it's free. Two, we need to break away from the evil Microsoft empire. Man, I wish we use Ubuntu in High school...were stuck with XP. (Yes, Slashdot has a few 14 year old readers ;))
"Mama always said life was like a box a chocolates, never know what you're gonna get" - Forest Gump
What exactly was underhanded here?
God forbid that Microsoft help a few people!
"My name is Ballmer. Just...Ballmer. From God, to Gates, to Ballmer. I am his right hand, and I have a task for you. This is Stallman. He has caused the Corporation much grief. His views do not coincide with ours, and that makes him dangerous. Silence him."
Perhaps Microsoft will hire the Janjaweed to drive Linux out of Africa. At least then they will leave the Darfur region alone.
Have gnu, will travel.
We had a guest speaker here at my university just last week talk about this. He's setting up wireless mesh networks in rural Zambia. It's essentially the only communication system they have. Cell phones cost 66 cents/min and the locals make $1/day..
Anyway, they have very limited internet access, with a few hundred machines behind a 128 kbps link. They pay $1100/month for it. No way in hell are they gonna keep downloading all the patches needed on Windows. As such, a Windows machine is only useful for about two months (tops) before the worms eat it.
boldly going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse
All your software is managed an upgraded using a single GUI interface, some distros can even do major version upgrade with a few mouse clicks - try upgrading from XP to Vista that way!
Ehm.. FYI: to do a mayor OS upgrade with just a few mouse clicks, works just fine, even in Windows. The only difference is with Windows, those few mouse clicks are a hell-uv-a-lot more expensive.
MS will be making a thumping loss on this ... are there are not anti dumping laws to stop this sort of thing ?
Yes this happened in South Africa guess what all the schools are now suddenly trying to find money to pay the yearly M$ licenses.
Interesting ?
Phase 1) Allow Microsoft to indulge in their usual anti-competitive behaviour.
Phase 2) Prosecute them.
Phase 3) $1.4bn profit!
Microsoft makes risky predatory investments in the grossly uncertain future of poverty stricken countries while its product line turns to shite, its US market share continues to slip, and its cash reserve continues to dwindle. Makes me feel good all over.
The poor countries cannot afford the high powered new machines required to run windows even if they get it free, most need linux because it will actually run on their hardware.
Are because of software patents, not ability.
Pantone colours, for example.
Couldn't MS be subject to legal ramifications because of dumping?
kadaji, fire up de generator!
.. i had to :)
But why?
To play de new vista box!
I just sold eet!
For what?
FOOD DUMBASS!
Sorry
New in Africa! Buy a computer with windows Vista and get a box of free ice cream sandwiches!
Go go Gadget Nailgun!
Foremost, I have to say that I enjoy chinese philosophy a big deal. In that spirit, let me formulate it that way: I see Linux as the air or water of operating systems. Sure you can bottle it, make it popular and sell it for a price, but you will always have to compete with what is available for free.
Linux can, in this regard, never win. Have you ever seen water winning? As a businessman, I can always prey on the naivety of the uneducated, and make them believe that my bottled water is better than what comes out of their tap - and in some cases that may surely be the case.
Still, Linux will survive every operating system that exists and will exist in the marketplace. On the one hand you have labels and trademars. On the other hand you have a free platform that is always there if none of the other options seem to be feasible.
As long as there is a need for operating systems, its development may stagnate, but it will never end. Linux may change shape, name and direction, but it is impossible to defeat, just as it is impossible to destroy water.
So, please, do not worry too much about what these silly businessmen are doing. Persistence, attention, openness and honesty are key to success here. Microsoft may have a few more years, we have centuries.
Do not trust this signature.
"This is Stallman. He has caused the Corporation much grief. His views do not coincide with ours, and that makes him dangerous. Silence him."
"Your main opposition will be Battle Linux - a Linux distribution specifically formulated to counteract and incapacitate Microsoft software..."
Bow-ties are cool.
FreeCraft was headshot because its recent incarnation worked StarCraft gameplay into the fray, and all revisions of StarCraft after 1.0 were going out of their way to prevent a measly opensource project from allowing its user to play on over 20 different operating systems free from Microsoft code. And this was back in year 2001! Just imagine how much code Vivendi Blizzard scans through to make sure they are a 100% Microsoft Apple footprint! It's ridiculous, but Microsoft gives the incentive by kickbacks.
Just think of all those wasted hours of StarCraft competition through all the performance bottlenecks if only people could use FreeCraft. And what is even funnier is FreeCraft originally allowed WarCraft 1 & 2 data to be used, so this would evolve into an Orc vs Protoss battle really quick. Oh for shame! Sam Lantinga should be shot for working for Blizzard.
Aren't you the idiot who claimed the Apple store didn't fully refund opened software, and when proven wrong about that, then claimed they didn't sell games, and when proven wrong about THAT, started whining to the mods that the proof of you being wrong was "off topic".
And the whole time you were quoting from the very document that proved you were full of shit but you were too stupid to scroll down to see it?
Yes, yes you are that fucking idiot.
I hope this turns out like Far Cry 2, that would be epic.
I can just see linux pulling bullets out of its flesh with pliers while mowing down the foreign MS mercenaries.
What?
Huh? $800 per seat? 800 what, USD? If those are client machines then that's insane. Even for Microsoft. I mean, the in-store windows pro for ~$200US gives you five licenses right? So I'd think, starting from $40US/license, then with an educational discount, then with a it's-frickin-Africa-and-we-have-to-pretend-to-have-a-heart-discount, it should be $10-20US max.
$800 license for Windows and Office? Are these server licenses maybe? Or is it a misprint and that's the price of an entire machine? I tried looking on Microsoft's licensing page, but their prices are obfuscated behind a 10-foot thick wall of PHB-speak. Ok, google produced this excel file that puts what is (I think) win pro at $311/4= $77.75US per seat. Can someone anointed with the licensing voodoo enlighten me please?
OT: the excel file linked from microsofts site is named: Copy%20of%20Price_List_Report.xls LOL
Billy Brown rides on. Yolanda Green bypasses Gary White.
Aren't you the idiot who claimed the Apple store didn't fully refund opened software, and when proven wrong about that, then claimed they didn't sell games, and when proven wrong about THAT, started whining to the mods that the proof of you being wrong was "off topic".
And the whole time you were quoting from the very document that proved you were full of shit but you were too stupid to scroll down to see it?
Yes indeed you are that fucking idiot.
AND NOW you all KNOW why gates donated money to fight aids.
So he can say oh i want that cash back now.
It takes an eternity and a half to start. Bash is instantaneous.
Writing something in powershell automatically makes it an incredible resource hog. Shell scripts should not be that way.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Well in every poor country there are always some very rich. Of course those rich can afford the download of M$ patches - with there huge M$ bribes in there pocket.
Kinda reminds me of the story of Nestle giving free samples of baby formula in poor 3rd world countries ("it's much more modern, scientific and better for your child than breast milk"), and once the mothers' breast milk dried up, they couldn't necessarily afford the expensive formula, resulting in starving children.
Microsoft, you baby-killers!
Sometime back I was working as General Manager-Consulting for National Institute for Smart Governance in India http://www.nisg.org/ Within the first month of my joining NISG, Microsoft voluntarily approached me with their technology offerings for e-governance projects. When I called RedHat, India they didn't bother to visit me. And the result is most of the e-governance projects now use Microsoft technologies in India.
Well, at least they're doing something positive, even if it's for the sake of not wanting people to use Linux...
But it'd have been a much better idea to spend this money on being able to do something for the poor countries' economies somehow.
I am not devoid of humor.
I'm currently teaching English in a rural secondary school in Namibia, and helping with the computer lab as I can. We're one of the lucky schools - we have internet access through a radio link and often have as many at 15 working computers (power supplies and monitors seem to have short lifespans out here).
All of our computers use Linux (either Open Lab or Edubuntu) as part of the SchoolNet distribution. The problem? Our computer curriculum is specifically designed with Microsoft products in mind (Office and Publisher) and the teachers here don't have enough of a background to transfer the learning objectives to Open Office in the classroom.
So MS (or whoever set the curriculum to MS products) has managed to create a situation where the teachers are actively campaigning against the free alternative. It's insidious and hard to fight.
More and more people and governments in Windows orientated western countries switch to Linux. Why? Because it is an open platform. Microsoft may push it's software to new markets but in time people will realize the mistake they made and eventually switch too Linux too.
Read the Microsoft internal "Halloween" documents on how to deal with open source software http://www.catb.org/~esr/halloween/
People obviously don't know shit of what is happenning in Africa. Just last week there were more violence in the DRC. People have responded to the current economic collapse by eating less. How much will it matter to them whether Linux or Windows are installed on their computers?
Power cuts here in Nigeria happens every day. You have malaria, aids, corrupt politicians and a hundred other problems here. The roads are in dire need of repair. The Niger delta is in a state of emergency thanks to MEND.
Trust me, it doesn't mean shit. Anyways, when people want something here, they do not care about things like copy protection, they just take it.
Why are people always so emotional about the small things, and totally miss the big things?
Penny wise, pound foolish.
Dear Microsoft supporter,
My group runs (owns) 30 linux servers and 8 linux clients at work. We use it for high end trading applications for a wall street firm. As far as I know, Linux is now "the custom of the industry" for trading applications -- because it is technically superior in every way. My firm has literally thousands of Linux machines. So do all our competitors and the exchanges.
I do run one Microsoft client workstation (XP) for each person in my group. These run predominately brain dead applications that are provided for us by backwards looking vendors in Microsoft only. We also run Cygwin as an X server so that we can use the Microsoft machines as dumb xterminals to the linux applications if we need another screen. (The closed source Hummingbird Exceed X server does not function as well, as cost is no object.)
At home, we have two linux PC's that are shared among three users (myself, my wife, and my 12 year old). I do all the "system administration". They don't know better that there might be some proprietary apps. Games are not an issue -- I won't buy them or let my twelve year old play them -- he has more than enough homework and other non-academic activities. I'm going to outfit a third machine for my 7 year old daughter.
I run linux at home because it costs less time for me. The fact that I don't have to purchase an expensive software component from some monopoly manufacturer (think backup software, virus checking software, or Office upgrades) for each machine every two years is also a factor in that it "just bugs me" that they charge so much for something that should have been included in the operating system.
The machines just keep running without problem. Never had a detected piece of malware.
So, for the use that I know, Linux is the most economically effective choice.
Maybe in your business you use predominately vendor locked in software on Microsoft. Then Microsoft might be economically the more effective for you.