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[News] Microsoft Dumps Free PCs to Fight GNU/Linux in Portugal

  • Subject: [News] Microsoft Dumps Free PCs to Fight GNU/Linux in Portugal
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2008 01:04:02 +0000
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: Netscape / schestowitz.com
  • User-agent: KNode/0.10.4
Largest Cell Operator in Russia and Microsoft to offer Subsidised Laptops

,----[ Quote ]
| In my country (Portugal) we have a very similar deal, available to all 
| students and teachers in high school, which is subsidized by the 
| cellphone/mobile ISP companies, the government and probably Microsoft, where 
| you can get a laptop for 150 euros with a contract for 2 years for the mobile 
| internet access with a nice discount from the usual monthly fees, from 
| several well known laptop manufacturers (HP, Toshiba), and pretty decent 
| machines also (Core Duo, 1 Gb RAM, the only downside is they all have 
| integrated graphics cards), of course they all come with Windows Vista Home 
| Premium as well.          
`----

http://technocrat.net/d/2008/2/16/36312

"They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect
sometime in the next decade."

                                                -- Bill Gates


Recent:

Microsoft gives away 85 million PCs...on a subscription basis

,----[ Quote ]
| As suggested above, however, the program also offers Microsoft a way to club 
| Linux's growth in these markets 
`----

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9873028-7.html?tag=nefd.top


Related:

Good Bill, Bad Bill, and The Art of Philanthropy

,----[ Quote ]
| And so, paradoxically, the more the Bad Bill becomes the Good Bill, the more 
| long-term harm he will do in the world of computing by spreading the Windows 
| habit to those least able to afford it, with knock-on damage to countries' 
| balance of payments and the rest. Meanwhile, the increasingly-confused free 
| software community will find that the more it tries to attack the Good Bill 
| for doing harm in this way, it, rather than Bill, will be portrayed as bad by 
| the growing global band of Good Bill admirers, for daring to question such 
| manifest and munificent philanthropy.       
`----

http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/good-bill-bad-bill-and-art-philanthropy


Governments Must Reject Gates' $3 Bid to Addict Next Billion PC Users 

,----[ Quote ]
| "Microsoft's strategy of getting developing nations hooked on its
| software was clearly outlined by Bill Gates almost a decade ago," said
| Con Zymaris, CEO of long-standing open source firm Cybersource. 
| 
| Specifically, Bill Gates, citing China as an example, said:
|  
|   "Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, but
|   people don't pay for the software," he said. "Someday they will, though.
|   As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours.
|   They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to
|   collect sometime in the next decade."[1]
`----

http://www.cybersource.com.au/press/gates_set_to_addict_next_billion.html


Yoohoo! EU Commission! Are you watching?

,----[ Quote ]
| Please remember this day, next time someone tells you how
| philanthropic Mr. Gates is. Monopolies these days not only crush
| competition, they're willing to crush a charity to make a buck. I
| would say any apparent cooperation with OLPC, therefore, is just for
| show, folks. Those "technical" difficulties won't be solved, I figure,
| until this new market is glutted with Microsoft on Intel Classmates
| and Asus EEE's, loaded with XP, that old-fashioned operating system,
| and none of their laptops can do for those children what the OLPC XO
| can do. P.S. Children don't need training to use an OLPC XO. It's
| designed to *not* need it. I hope OLPC patented everything before they
| show Microsoft a thing. For real. Otherwise, someday we'll be looking
| for prior art to overturn a Microsoft patent or two.
| 
| Yoohoo, EU Commission! Are you watching these maneuvers?
`----

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080123114324664


Fight Microsoft's lobbying of the world's governments: call to free and open
source millionaires

,----[ Quote ]
| The current lobbying
| 
| Mr. Gates has continued his lobbying and travelling over the last years. In 
| general, every time he goes somewhere, something happens. A government or a 
| city is converted to Microsoft; an important GNU/Linux contract is cancelled 
| (see how the Mandriva deal turned out in Nigeria). Officials start 
| contradicting each other in what they tell the press. Things generally go 
| pear-shaped.     
`----

http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/fight_microsofts_lobbying_of_the_worlds_governments_call_to_free_and_open_source_millionaires


[Mandriva CEO:] An open letter to Steve Ballmer

,----[ Quote ]
| Wow! I’m impressed, Steve! What have you done for these guys to change their
| mind like this? It’s pretty clear to me, and it will be clear to everyone.
| How do you call what you just did Steve, in the place where you live? In my
| place, they give it various names, I’m sure you know them.  
|
| Hey Steve, how do you feel looking at yourself in the mirror in the morning?
|
| Of course, I will keep fighting this one and the next one, and the next one.
| 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.  
`----

http://blog.mandriva.com/2007/10/31/an-open-letter-to-steve-ballmer/


Lessons from Africa: How to Kill Your Own FUD

,----[ Quote ]
| So, even as Microsoft claims superior quality over Linux, they act as if they 
| don't even buy their own FUD. If they really believed that Windows was 
| superior to Linux, they wouldn't have to bribe people with “marketing help” 
| to get them to choose Windows.   
`----

http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2007-11-09-030-26-OP-MD-MS


Linux wins Nigerian school desktops back from Microsoft

,----[ Quote ]
| "We are sticking with that platform," said the official, who would not give
| his name.
`----

http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/government-law/public-sector/news/index.cfm?newsid=6124
http://tinyurl.com/27ycq9


Intel: doing the dirty on OLPC

,----[ Quote ] 
| Intel’s agreement with the OLPC Foundation included a ‘non disparagement’ 
| clause, under which Intel and One Laptop promised not to criticize each 
| other, according to Nicholas Negroponte in the latest article in the Wall 
| Street Journal.   
| 
| Still Intel tactics have violated that repeatedly to kill OLPC efforts in 
| Nigeria, Libya, Pakistan, India, China and Intel is also still trying to pull 
| those tactics in Mexico, Brazil.  
| This is simply disgracefull of Intel, scandalous.
| 
| But Negroponte has signed an agreement saying that he is not allowed to 
| criticize Intel, so he is not allowed to talk about these shameless tactics 
| even though Intel is the one violating the agreement.  
| 
| So only independant voices on the Internet can get those messages of truth 
| out about Intels tactics. 
| 
| In Nigeria, Intel came and donated 3000 laptops to counter OLPC efforts, then 
| sells 17 thousand Classmates to Nigeria at a loss. 
| 
| Then Microsoft corrupted Nigerian officials with 400 thousand dollars to 
| install Windows XP on those instead of Mandriva Linux. 
`----

http://www.p2pnet.net/story/14124


Cringely the Unemployable on the fallacy of Web 2.0, Microsoft ruthlessness,
and the CB radio of our decade

,----[ Quote ]
| Davidson: Which software company would you hate to compete against? What 
| makes you single them out? 
| 
| Cringely: Microsoft of course. They have the deepest of pockets, unlimited 
| ambition, and they are willing to lose money for years and years just to make 
| sure that you don't make any money, either. And they are mean, REALLY mean.  
| 
| Davidson: Why do you think Microsoft is mean? Are you implying some kind of 
| malicious intent rather than just ruthlessness? 
| 
| Cringely: Maybe "mean" is the wrong word to use for Microsoft. "Ruthless" is 
| good. The company is built in the image of Bill Gates and Bill is a guy who 
| gets caught-up in the game of business and doesn't typically see its personal 
| cost. To use what might seem to be an obscure example, just look at all the 
| various partnerships and industry consortia that Microsoft has announced 
| through the years that never produced a product or even a usable 
| specification. There have been literally dozens of these operations that are 
| intended solely to freeze the competition until Microsoft can figure what the 
| heck it actually wants to do. To Microsoft its a PR exercise that helps them 
| compete but to customers it is just a damned lie. That's ruthless. There are 
| plenty of other examples I can give but you get the point. I represent the 
| concerns of users, not vendors, and Microsoft doesn't really care about 
| users.            
`----

http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2007/07/cringely-the-un.html

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