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Industry wants open standards
,----[ Quote ]
| Open standards are favoured by most industry players because they are viewed
| as being less prescriptive than open source software which is very often
| associated with operating systems such as Linux.
`----
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Software/4632.html
South Africa is moving to Free software, but Microsoft is trying to dump free
stuff to put an end to it. Now it appears to be encouraging the deployment of
FOSS on Windows and the rest of the Microsoft stack, using 'donations'.
MS to help test open source in CT
,----[ Quote ]
| David Ives, Microsoft's group lead developer and platform strategy director,
| says the laboratory means a total investment of about R700 000, including
| five high-end desktop Dell PCs with Microsoft Vista and two high-end Dell
| servers with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 installed.
|
| “After some discussion with the Cape IT Initiative, we realised that many
| open source developers were struggling to get their software to run on
| various Microsoft products such as Exchange, so we decided to do this
| installation to help,” Ives says.
`----
http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/software/2008/0807281050.asp?O=FPTOP&S=Innovations&A=INV
Microsoft also sent its lobbying shills (e.g. CompTIA) to pressure politicians
there. It's a dirty and corrupt game.
Recent:
Microsoft invests ZAR 750 mln in software for South African schools
http://www.telecom.paper.nl/news/article.aspx?id=222155&nr=
Microsoft to give software to 26 000 schools
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft will supply productivity and server software worth about
| R750-million to public schools.
|
| The software is expected to reach 26 000 government schools across South
| Africa, bringing modern information and communication technology to more than
| 11 million pupils.
`----
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=105&art_id=vn20080710060321151C258628
Feeling the heat at Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| A couple of years ago you reiterated that IBM was Microsoft's biggest
| competitor and you said not just on the business side, but overall. If I ask
| you who is Microsoft's biggest competitor now, who would it be?
|
| Ballmer: Open...Linux. I don't want to say open source. Linux, certainly have
| to go with that.
`----
http://www.news.com/Feeling-the-heat-at-Microsoft/2008-1012_3-6232458.html?tag=ne.fd.mnbc
Related:
Yoohoo! EU Commission! Are you watching?
,----[ Quote ]
| Here's some repulsive news from Microsoft, in an article on Yahoo!
| News titled, "Microsoft pledges cash for IT in developing world" but
| which I would more accurately, I think, call, "Microsoft Finds New Way
| To Be Anticompetitive":
|
| [...]
|
| "Microsoft is still working through some of the 'technical
| limitations' that remain in putting XP on the XO, the green PC from
| the One Laptop Per Child project, Ayala [MS spokesman] said."
|
| So, to compete with Microsoft, Linux needs to be able to spend 235
| million to buy a market? There are also some interesting details on
| deals being made in Russia, Mexico and Libya:
|
| [...]
|
| Of course, they can't put that honking Vista on these laptops. So,
| it's XP forever, I guess, for the third world. Indeed the article says
| XP will be the supported platform on low-cost PCs such as the
| Classmate and Asus EEE, this despite the fact that Windows XP will
| stop being available to OEMs in June 2008 according to what I've seen
| announced. I hope those governments have figured out a plan on how
| they will upgrade someday. Hahahaha. Their only hope is if Microsoft
| can pick OLPC's brains fast and then figure out how to get a smaller
| footprint.
|
| [ Update: It's not just in the third world. A reader just sent me this
| link, about Microsoft offering Finland free Live.edu software for all
| Finnish schools, and the software enables "community features such as
| a discussion forum students can use to discuss with each other". Sort
| of like what XO meshing enables? More, if you can read Finnish.]
|
| So, bottom line? I read it as meaning that Microsoft would like to
| join Intel in killing off One Laptop Per Child's XO laptop, because it
| runs Linux on AMD, and because OLPC identified a new market in the
| third world, and monopolies are like the grave -- they never say,
| "Enough".
|
| 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
Does anybody care about Mr. Gates’s visit in Paris?
,----[ Quote ]
| Bill Gates took the opportunity to enslave sign an agreement with the mayor
| of Paris that will provide educational and social services of the city
| with “free” PCs running Windows Vista (oh, Joy!).
|
| [...]
|
| Call me envious, jealous, or simply evil, but it’s been a long time I don’t
| buy into Mr Gate’s social initiatives. I call them enlightened self-interest,
| especially when it’s about offering computers running Vista to the poor the
| very same day the French gendarmerie is announcing the migration of 70,000
| desktops to Ubuntu Linux. Yes, you read that right. If there’s any news this
| week coming from France, this is it.
`----
http://standardsandfreedom.net/index.php/2008/01/30/does-anybody-care-about-mr-gatess-visit-in-paris/
Gates to tap young minds
,----[ Quote ]
| Giving away Microsoft software also helps to ensure the next generation of
| code writers is well-versed in the Redmond, Wash., company's technology....
| Because they are minors and can't sign license agreements, high school
| students will have access to the tools only through their teachers.
`----
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_8302312
CH: Geneva schools completely switch to Open Source
,----[ Quote ]
| About 70,000 students and their 7,000 teachers in the Geneva school district
| will gradually be moving to Open Source.
`----
http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7576/6008
Deploying KDE to 52 million young people
,----[ Quote ]
| By the end of this year 29,000 labs serving some 32,000,000 students will be
| fully deployed and in active use.
|
| By the end of next year (2009) those numbers will have swelled to 53,000 labs
| serving some 52,000,000 students.
`----
http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2008/04/deploying-kde-to-52-million-young.html
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