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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 ...'"
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?
It's Microsoft, nobody expects you to RTFA.
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.
Hmm, that's a hell of a lot of chutzpah from Microsoft. Perhaps they should do a little research into the origin of the word Ubuntu.
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.
Linux is like the electric car, not a chance and only in a few places..
Well in this case, Africa might be just one of those places. I mean ,what is MS going to do? Give away Windows licenses for free, and throw in Vista-capable PC's as well? (sorry, didn't read the TFA).
Another thing Linux has going here, is that it is -relatively- easy to produce local versions. I mean, does there even exist Windows XP or Vista in Swahili? If not, that may be just what Linux needs to get picked over Windows (or other candidates). And let's not forget the educational aspect: having a system where you can see how it works, how it's put together & how to adapt it to your own requirements, is great when you're in a place where the IT industry is often just starting.
And then you end up addicted to freedom and all you can play is tux racer.
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).
Nobody wants to use Windows. It just comes "free" with the computer, just like MS-DOS before it.
The 90s? You mean back when Windows literally was just an MS-DOS shell?
It's almost the "teens" here. It's time to update your FUD.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
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.
Well in this case, Africa might be just one of those places. I mean ,what is MS going to do? Give away Windows licenses for free, and throw in Vista-capable PC's as well? (sorry, didn't read the TFA).
What is MS going to do? Bribe high-ranking government officials, that's what. Sorry to say this, but I think MS is going to have a very easy time in most african countries, to have Linux replaced by MS in all schools and government institutions.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Steve Ballmer's got balls because he's got monopoly money to spend and he knows exactly what Ubuntu is and where it came from. He also knows that when that monopoly money runs out, they are in deep Elephant dung because their products have always stood on emaciated legs.
He also knows he's got more money than Mark Shuttleworth.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
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."
The 90s? That is relevant how? It is about as useful as my telling you that Mandriva 2009 is much better than Windows 3.1. What is relevant is how current Linux versions compare to current Windows versions.
There is a lot of software for Linux, and obtainning and installing it is much easier and faster than for Windows.
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
Wrong. Most Linux users use it because they think it is better. Those who want to use open source have good motives to do so (avoiding lock in, auditable security). The biggest advantages of Linux are that it is easy, and that it is flexible. 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!
As for the flexibility you can get distros for geeks (Gentoo, Slack, Arch), normal users desktops (Ubuntu, Mandriva, SuSe), servers (Debian, Red Hat), old hardware (Puppy, Damn Small Linux).
As a (primarily) Linux user myself, my best advice to you is that you shouldn't use Linux unless you can think of a reason to do so.
But please do not tar those of us who do use it as "rebels". I myself work for a telecoms company where Linux has "swept the floor" as the core OS for most of the telephony products that we sell. No, it hasn't particularly displaced Windows in doing so, more the commercial UNIXes like Solaris and HP-UX and, if anything, we use Windows to handle most of the client-side stuff for integration into corporate networks.
But please don't pretend to have any understanding of why people like me use Linux as their primary OS at home because your comments show your ignorance. I fully accept that Linux lacks a lot of the Adobe-type applications and other things that a lot of existing Windows people currently want to use but please remember that it is not Linux's fault that is the case - rather the Adobes of the world who just haven't decided to port those apps across as of yet.
However, for most users like me who just do a bit of photo and graphics work, The GIMP more than suffices. Likewise, I need to do a few relatively straightforward spreadsheets, documents and presentations so OpenOffice is good enough for me. Plus I'm a shell and PERL monkey so I have access to tremendous automation power at the Linux shell prompt which, even if I wanted to do something similar in Windows, would need a steep learning curve with VB, DotNet or something else, assuming it was even possible.
I also like gaming and there's plenty of Linux games that I play, thanks mostly to the Open Sourcing of games engines like Doom and Quake. Yes, I keep XP around to play some more modern stuff (and because sometimes I need MS Office also) but even if you look at my XP machines, you'll see most of the tools I use are OSS or free ones like Firefox, OpenOffice, PuTTY, WinSCP, The GIMP, Irfanview, ImgBurn, etc. etc.
Unfortunately, you've made two very obtuse comments which only serve to highlight your total lack of Linux knowledge:
1. Linux is a lot more mature now than the last time you installed it during the 90s (just like Windows XP is a much better OS than Windows 95 and 98 were), and
2. Linux is really just the kernel and most of the other nice useful bits that go into an average Linux distro also happen to have Windows ports as well - so choosing not to use free software on the basis that "if it was good you could sell it" is just doing yourself a dis-service, no-one else.
Yes, I'd love to be in a situation where one OS could do everything I needed to do but the fact is neither Linux or Windows fit that requirement at this moment in time. However, because I'm not a zealot and prefer just to use the "right tool for the job", I really don't give a toss whether an application needs Linux or Windows to run - I just get on and use whatever I need to when I need to, satisfied in the knowledge that most of the stuff I use is truly free to use, and the commercial software I use is fully licensed.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
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.
most Linux/open source advocates do it for the rebellion not because they have a better product to promote.
No, most OSS advocates do it because the software is THEIRS; by being part of the community that develops it they are personally involved with the software, and are justifiably proud of it. "Look what we built"
What I don't understand is why Microsoft apologists like you bother. You didn't help build Windows, MS has no loyalty to you; evidence shows they do not even LIKE you. They only want you to stay on the treadmill. And yet still you sing their praises. "Look what I paid for". Doesn't make any sense.
Looking at some Microsoft dlls you can see they're signed by Thawt which is the company Mark Shuttleworth sold for millions, so in a round-a-bout kind of way Microsoft funded the ability for Mark to start Ubuntu which is now competing with Microsoft in Africa. Woops.
Thank GOD I had a working Ubuntu partition that could actually communicate to the ethernet card so I could actually search for the proprietary Windows drivers on the net.
Have you ever actually tried to get a Windows installation to work without the benefit of the proprietary driver discs? Starting from the same clean slate (an OS ISO), I'd wager you'll have better luck with Ubuntu these days.
I mean, does there even exist Windows XP or Vista in Swahili?
Yes, there is.
$_ = "wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgcdwatb"; tr/a-z/oh, turtleneck Phrase Jar!/; print
"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."
In the event you are actually ignorant and not just trying to pick a fight, I can assure you that as someone who hasn't run Windows in several years, and does most of his computing on Linux (along with OS X on a laptop), I am not doing so out of any sense of "rebellion", although I don't see anything wrong with that mindset under certain circumstances.
If your primary reason for using a computer is to play games, you certainly should just stay with Windows. If I wanted to play games I think I'd rather have one of those thing you hook up to your TV.
I used to support Windows users for a living, and before that OS/2 users and before than DOS users and before that mainframe users.
I used to be quite a fan of Windows because it ran on several hardware platforms, was fairly fast, had a reasonable feature set. Interestingly enough, Linux does all that now, and Windows does not. So you see it is Windows (or Microsoft) that rebelled against me when they decided only to support Intel boxes, allowed the code to get bloated, buggy and slow. If you like being forced to buy a new computer every few years just to get the OS to boot in a reasonable amount of time, then by all means go ahead and do that. Not only are you having to pay, in most cases, full price to get the latest version of Windows (over the years MS hasn't been able to make up its mind regarding upgrade-only versions of Windows, but as I understand it these days it's better to go with the full release) but you are also required usually to get a whole new computer as your old one is maxed out on memory that is no longer easily available etc. Again, for gaming, having the fastest processor, and the mos memory, fastest bus, etc. are all important for running the game, regardless of your OS. For ordinary web browsing, light office work, photo-shop type stuff, my vintage 2000 machine does quite well. In fact, when Windows users see me on it they ask how I got it to be so fast. I am quite sure that if I tried to run Windows on this machine it would be a very frustrating experience.
Also, I'm not running Linux because it is "free". I purchased my first few versions of Linux in the form of Red Hat and Suse. Eventually found I liked Debian better (even purely for desktop use) and so I settled on it. Of course it's nice not to have to pay for your OS, but even if each major release of Debian cost as much as Windows I'd still be coming out way ahead both in terms of the hardware I'd need to run it and in terms of time wasted on virus scanning, defragging, cleaning my registry and of course mandatory upgrades. Of course if you are paying $3 for it in Africa, maybe you don't mind all the overhead. I'm sure those people paying $3 are getting full telephone support from Microsoft for that too.
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
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."
I tried installing Windows a few times back in the 90s, and after banging my head around the TCP/IP stack to actually get it working I thought to myself "Oh. Sweet. Viruses and an annoying paperclip I DONT NEED." It may surprise you to learn that computers have advanced over the last two decades.
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.
The thing is, it only took that one guy 2 weeks to get WoW working, and now hundreds of Linux users get it working with far less effort. Open source beats proprietary not because it's easier to make it work, but because only one person has to put in the effort for everyone else to benefit.
After all if your open source was a decent product, youd be able to SELL IT
People don't sell Linux, not because nobody is willing to pay for it (people pay millions for Unix), but because people don't _have_ to pay for it. Would you pay for a car, even a good one, if you could get it for free from a different dealership?
http://www.mhall119.com
Frankie70: the highlights? hiring relatives of government ministers, and offering $400,000 in "marketing funds" to a reseller in order to persuade them to replace Mandriva ($3 per machine) with Windows ($45 per machine) on a large order of Intel Classmate PCs.
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.
You do know there is a lot of hardware supported out the box with Linux, and some that isn't.
You tend to have more success when you buy hardware that is supported.
(assume samual jackson voice)
Did your computer come with anything that said it was designed to work with Linux or any particular version of Linux Brad? No, So why did you decide to treat it as if it was.
Now Brad it said designed for Windows Vista, didn't it Brad and when you gave it Vista it ran perfectly fine, now why are we not surprised?
Thats right brad it was designed to run vista.
So what have learned brad? Don't bitch when you buy hardware without knowing if its supported or not. Thats right brad but don't feel too bad because that computer can't run XP! Wwwhat! yes brad there are no drivers for XP because everybody was supposed to be happy with Vista.
Well Don't be too sad brad install virtualbox and XP and Ubuntu will run without complaint or any need to compile anything...
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