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251 Comments
- Phocion55, on 11/05/2007, -6/+102And, ladies and gentlemen, *THIS* is the EXACT reason why I wish Microsoft would stay away from the OLPC.
"You have the money, the power, and maybe we have a different sense of ethics you and I, but I believe that hard work, good technology and ethics can win too."
Cheers to that. - ptFoe, on 11/05/2007, -13/+99C'mon Africa is so corrupt, ideal playground for MS.
- inactive, on 11/02/2007, -12/+85That's M$ for you. Wait until someone creates a market, then use your money to ***** 'em.
- cmost, on 11/02/2007, -4/+69Knowing Microsoft, they probably gave away the Windows licenses, just to get the Nigerian folks dependent on it (and Office, which I'm sure they also threw in for good measure.) They probably also gave a hefty cash donation to a few Nigerian causes. Microsoft is much like the corner drug dealer, the first taste is always free! I'm sure the non-techie folks in Nigeria haven't attempted to run Vista on these low spec machines. If they were to do so, they'd soon regret their decision to wipe the much faster (and more secure) Mandriva OS for the slow, bloated behemoth that is Vista. I don't know when folks will wake up to the fact that Microsoft isn't a company that plays fair or ethically.
- psion01, on 11/02/2007, -2/+55That's it. Not only am I through with Microsoft products, I'm ticked at Nigeria, too. Until they change their tune, I'm not helping any more of their government officials or royalty move money out of their country.
- inactive, on 11/02/2007, -4/+50Really? You have no clue?
$$$$$$$$$$$ - Phocion55, on 11/02/2007, -3/+49Just like they're trying to do with the OLPC. They just wait until the actual system is created (with Linux installed), then at the last second jump in with an announcement that they have a "specially tailored" OLPC version of WinXP. (And by "specially tailored" I actually mean "purposely crippled").
Such a gutless move. - capiCrimm, on 11/12/2007, -2/+44the 90's called, they want their FUD back.
- capeman, on 11/01/2007, -3/+38I think the man from Mandriva was dropping a very broad hint as to what the reason was.
- MacEnvy, on 11/02/2007, -0/+30If you recall, Bill Gates just went to Nigeria. It was on digg because he had trouble getting a visa. How much do you want to bet that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is going to be paying for some public works projects in Nigeria soon?
I don't want to be cynical, but that's how I would play it if I were an evil genius. - ercocozza, on 11/02/2007, -4/+31For those of you who don't understand....
MS Is giving the OS for free. The reason is to promote MS in Nigeria in place of open source. Then when the students are more comfortable with MS products as adults they will stick with them. So Open-Source will be less accepted in this community of children.
Unfortunately by the time these people are adults, the free MS OS offer is sure to be off the table. - thomasprebble, on 11/02/2007, -7/+34Steve Ballmer is the personification of every reason I don't want to work for Microsoft. Seems I'm not the only one put off by this guy either.
- MrARPA, on 11/07/2007, -8/+34Actually any real competition scares M$ witless, as the court cases and dirty tricks they've been involved in prove.
- Coldkill, on 11/02/2007, -1/+26Stop trolling, idiot
- ArthurArchnix, on 11/02/2007, -5/+29Dear Nigerian Prime Minister,
My name is Bills Gates. I am the head of a major computer company with assets in the billions of dollars. I have the courage to Crave indulgence for this important business believing that you will never let me down either now or in the future. Legal issues with the SEC in the United States prevent me from accessing all of my money. This is the situation, and my proposal is that I am looking for a foreigner who will stand in as the next of kin to beneficiary. This is simple, all you have to do is to INSTALL Vista on all your PC's so that I could be free up 1Billion dollars. The money will then be paid into an Account for us to share in the ratio of 60% for me, 35 % for you and 5% for expenses that might come up during transfer process. There is no risk at all, and all the paper work for this transaction will be done by me using my position at Microsoft and connections in the banks in the USA. There is no risk and your portion is gaurenteed. Please respond to me at this email if you wish to pursue this opportunity with me. - Remmy, on 11/02/2007, -2/+25Linux is in no way crippled and a comment like that shows that you simply want to troll. I use Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and occasionally use a Mac. I'm not one to show favoritism when it comes to Operating Systems, but comments like that show ignorance.
- keyo, on 11/02/2007, -1/+24It's not about the sales they get from those computers at all. They try and get their foot in the door first so everything gets based around their OS (vendor lock-in). All they have to do is pay off a few of the top guys and their on the way being the dominant OS for a generation of nigerians. It's kinda like a drug dealer getting people hooked with free samples.
- macsaver, on 11/02/2007, -6/+27Steve Ballmer offered a blue screen of death and viruses.
- thomasprebble, on 11/02/2007, -1/+20Well apparently they recently succeeded in getting XP to run on the thing but not without having to install a new bios and bricking a few of the machines in the process. I have spoken to people working on the OLPC project and they are adamant they are going to be sticking with the whole open source thing and this is echoed all over their site.
- inactive, on 11/02/2007, -4/+22Ballmer is the personification of an perfect *****. And I for one will not buy his garbage.
- kageki, on 11/02/2007, -1/+18For some people that don't seem to get it this is not a win-win happy situation. The postscript is most telling of this:
"PS: a message to our friends in Nigeria: it’s still time to do the right thing and make the right choice, you will get lots of support for it and excellent services!"
Support as in support contracts as in more money. You know like warranties these support contracts are lucrative. What kind of services? Additional services that require more money? You know like how salespersons try to sell you more stuff in addition to the original purchase?
As someone wisely brings up MS Office, if the machines don't run Windows they are not going to run MS Office which is potentially more lost profit in addition to the original license fee for Windows itself.
If Nigeria retained Mandriva this does cause further competitive issues for MS. If they end up being happy with the purchase it could potentially have a cascading effect and cut into MS' market. It matters greatly whether the customer retains the OS or not that ties into more revenue share in the future and market share.
What's even more telling is that the reason for switching to MS is not because they didn't like Mandriva for whatever reason. They apparently gave no reason at all.
Doing dirty business is the antithesis of a free market. - ArrakisDune, on 11/02/2007, -3/+19and that people, is why the human race is screwed.
- ArrakisDune, on 11/02/2007, -3/+19No. Its call a monopoly. Look it up.
- Urusai, on 11/01/2007, -5/+21You keep telling yourself that...
- inactive, on 11/02/2007, -3/+19This pissed me off so much that I've logged in here for my first time in 6 months to post this comment.
The average Nigerian live on less than $1 a day and now they are going to be sucked into buying expensive licenses for Microsoft products (which have a unattractive passion for crashing and virus) for years to come.
I'm off to cancel my facebook account. - KaptainKandy, on 11/02/2007, -3/+19Clearly you have absolutely no conception of business ethics or standards.
- zwaldowski, on 11/02/2007, -2/+17'has'?! ***** you.
- TeatimeGrommit, on 11/02/2007, -3/+18Nigeria is almost certainly *not* paying Microsoft. In fact, Microsoft will pay Nigeria some undisclosed figure. This policy got started in the early '90s when MS realized that Universities were graduating armies of Unix users who didn't know about Windows, didn't want Windows, and couldn't see any good in Windows when they tried it. I was at such a school when MS came in and bought a bunch of "free" workstations, only catch was: they come with Windows and have to stay Windows.
- joebaloney, on 11/02/2007, -1/+15Yeah, of course. Nigerian classrooms COULD use OpenOffice and Dia for free, but those Nigerians schools are so loaded, I'm sure they'd rather spend a couple hundred per pc to install MS Office and Visio. That way their students can get the kind of high paying tech jobs they deserve.
- Philluminati, on 11/02/2007, -1/+15"It's kinda like a drug dealer getting people hooked with free samples."
-- That's an excellent simile - rolf, on 11/02/2007, -0/+13Yeah, that's what pissed me off when I installed Ubuntu! It was, oh noes, I can't install the same malware and spyware as everyone else!;)
- awp0, on 11/01/2007, -4/+15I work for a medium sized (~500 employees) software company that routinely competes with IBM. There's an old saying around the office which sums up the biggest challenge in such situations: No one ever got fired for choosing IBM. Dunno if it's relevant, but this reminded me of it.
As an aside, I think this open letter sounds a little whiny and childish. I don't think these kinds of things help advance the adoption of Linux, rather I'd imagine they're something of a turn-off to the people responsible for making such purchasing decisions. I read this and I think "pseudo-witty 20 year-old with poor grammar and a fairly weak message to someone I'm quite sure doesn't care". Probably not the best way to market your product. - dezman2003, on 11/02/2007, -3/+14If you need proof for that kind of thing education has failed you.
- RockinGoodNews, on 11/02/2007, -6/+17According to news reports, Steve Ballmer offered to provide Microsoft software (including the operating system), keybords and optical mice, 40 chickens, and a carton of cigarettes. It was far too much to resist.
- Christbait, on 11/02/2007, -3/+14He's a nut job. I just hope he keeps up with the erratic behaviour at conventions at his age, to the point where he has a heart attack, has a scrooge scenario and sees what a greedy ass he is.
- ArrakisDune, on 11/02/2007, -2/+12"but MS does have a heart in the middle of their billion dollar corporation"
You have GOT to be kidding?
Microsoft, as in the business side of it, is like almost all businesses: Money.
This is not a short term decision by Microsoft. If they run windows across the majority of their machines, anything they need to develop will be aimed at windows. When they need to upgrade their OS / Hardware, guess what OS they'll have to buy to get all their app's working.....
Bill Gates _is_ a generous person and has gave millions away to charity, there is no denying that. But you need to learn there is a big line between charity and business. Sometimes these might cross paths, but if they do, there is almost a hidden reason behind it. - thomasprebble, on 11/01/2007, -1/+11I thought I had a stalker for a bit but I see zybch is trolling everyone who has a different opinion to his.
- MrARPA, on 11/07/2007, -3/+13And you must be a fool if you don't know the way M$ behaves.
- 5plic3r, on 11/02/2007, -2/+12He's French?
- Remmy, on 11/02/2007, -2/+11That's the problem. Unli9ke Microsoft, they aren't in it just for the money. They want to see the advancement of the Open Source movement and a deal like this is what it needs. Microsoft plays dirty. Starting with DOS.
- Coldkill, on 11/02/2007, -3/+12No, he means wont you ever learn that with Linux articles comes annoying trolls like him
- capiCrimm, on 11/02/2007, -0/+9free toy inside every box, works like a charm.
- MacEnvy, on 11/02/2007, -1/+10I'm sorry, I buried you by accident.
The digg button should really be like twice as big as the bury button. Hear me, Kevin Rose? - kageki, on 11/01/2007, -0/+8If you didn't get the hint later in the post the answer is support. Support contracts are also money and most likely pretty lucrative. If they had kept Mandriva on their pcs then they can proudly present this case in their profile to boost even more sales. Yes they landed the initial sale, but you have to admit it's fishy.
- noahhoward, on 11/02/2007, -1/+9Just because you can't figure out how to use it doesn't mean the rest of the world is just as doomed.
- capiCrimm, on 11/01/2007, -0/+8actually, I was stalking you.
- openguru, on 11/02/2007, -1/+9Well, That is what is called as vendor lock-in in plain english.
- tedjar, on 11/02/2007, -2/+10This is interesting, it was the first thing that I saw when I went to test my wireless Internet...on a brand new Mandrivia one installation. Seriously. And it works perfect, I'm extremely happy so far. First time i ever got wireless to work on a Linux install..
- deadlikeoscar, on 11/02/2007, -6/+13Learn what? That even if Linux becomes superior to Microsoft in every way some day that no one will use it because Microsoft will pay people to use Windows?
- dhughes, on 11/02/2007, -1/+8 Maybe the Nigerian government was planning ahead to when Windows is no longer the top dog (thanks to Vista) and Linux is everyone's first OS choice.
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