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Kenya: How Software War Will Hurt Consumers
,----[ Quote ]
| Rather than buy Microsoft software or pay royalty fees to the company, most
| cyber-cafes around the country are choosing to instal free, open source
| software.
|
| This follows the start of an aggressive campaign by the software giant in
| October last year, which targeted cyber-cafes that are illegally using its
| software and denying it the right to benefit from many years of research.
`----
http://allafrica.com/stories/200805150945.html
Silly move by Microsoft. People choose Windows only if it's free (gratis).
Crack down harder, Microsoft. Harder.
Recent:
Linux cutting software costs in Kenya
,----[ Quote ]
| Entrepreneurs in Kenya are putting Linux to work to cut costs and maximise
| profits as they look for new ways to bring computing to users.One of these
| entrepreneurs is Patrick Mathenge, CEO of Mullard Electronic Limited, a firm
| trading in hardware and software from its Mombasa Road offices. The company
| is distributing Linux software that can turn a single computer into up to 10
| workstations.
`----
http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=2392
Microsoft Denies Threatening to Withdraw Funding
,----[ Quote ]
| However, the denial was a contradiction to comments by Bitange Ndemo,
| permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication, who
| said that Microsoft may have made comments regarding funding, though not
| directly or in writing.
|
| "They may have said something to that effect though not directly and not in
| writing. Microsoft cannot threaten us. In any case, our policy is very clear,
| we encourage people to use open-source software and those who want to use
| proprietary software are at liberty to do so" Ndemo said.
|
| There was heated debate in Kenya's technology sector before the decision to
| abstain. The decision was made by a 12-member committee. Some experts felt
| that the committee was comprised of a majority of Microsoft partners.
`----
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/144898/microsoft_denies_threatening_to_withdraw_funding.html
Kenya: Copyright Board Takes Piracy War to Cyber Cafes
,----[ Quote ]
| Cyber café operators within Nairobi are torn between legalising their
| Microsoft software operating system, shifting to Open Source Code or closing
| shop all together following the crack down on illegal software.
|
| [...]
|
| According to Mr Kasani, the software will manage all aspects of cyber café
| billing such as Internet time, printing, items, accounts, discounts, the
| programme will be across platform , it will be possible to run it on both
| Linux and Windows computers connected on the same cyber works.
`----
http://allafrica.com/stories/200711262040.html
Open source opportunity on the road to Nairobi
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=1725
Related:
Africa: 'Microsoft is Imperialistic' Says Open Source Advocates
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corporation's products have been locked out of the
| on-going World Social Forum (WSF) in Nairobi Kenya.
|
| With over 300 computers provided for participants and the press,
| organizers of the WSF have preferred to provide open source
| software products and blocked all Microsoft related products for
| the forum's usage and its related activities.
|
| [...]
|
| Activists at the forum also believe that since Microsoft is a
| corporate brand from the United States of America, a country
| they believe has intentions of maintaining the status quo of
| a unipolar world over which it is above international law and
| the UN, the brand should be locked out.
|
| [...]
|
| "The open source movement is providing Linux, a robust free
| software. Everybody owns it and it can be shared. And this
| is what WSF is all about - a free society, a movement
| fighting for ownership of free resources" he adds.
`----
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701230831.html
Swahili Blogosphere: State of education in Tanzania, M-Pesa and Open Source
Movement in Kenya
,----[ Quote ]
| Maitha, who blogs at Mawazo na Mawaidha, writes about M-Pesa and open
| source movement in Kenya. Recently, he, used M-Pesa service. He points
| out an incorrect Swahili phrase used by the service and wonders why
| they did not consult a Swahili linguist.
|
| He posts links to three Kenyan websites dedicated to the promotion of
| open source software. He believes that the websites will contribute to
| the growth of open source movement in Kenya.
`----
http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/05/06/swahili-blogosphere-state-of-education-in-tanzania-m-pesa-and-open-source-movement-in-kenya/
http://tinyurl.com/2nne3r
Open Source Debate at World Bank
,----[ Quote ]
| Yesterday the World Bank webcast an event - Open Systems for
| e-Government in Developing & Transition Countries. Officials from
| countries including Azerbaijan, Moldova, Georgia, Kenya, Rwanda
| and Tanzania participated by video conference.
`----
http://jakaplan.blogspot.com/2007/05/open-source-debate-at-world-bank.html
Sentimental blackmail: (RED)mond && Dell
,----[ Quote ]
| Recently, Microsoft is luring you with a tag line like this: "Windows and
| Dell are proud partners of (PRODUCT) RED™ — New PCs designed to help
| eliminate AIDS in Africa."
|
| [...]
|
| This is one of the most abject way of creating a psychological dependency of
| Windows Vista Ultimate: making people buy it for giving them the peace of
| mind that they helped to save lives in Africa!
`----
http://beranger.org/index.php?page=diary&2008/02/03/22/48/51-sentimental-blackmail-red-mond-a
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
Nigerian students power up their laptops
,----[ Quote ]
| Khaled Hassounah, director of Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per
| Child (OLPC) program in Africa and the Middle East, has spent the
| last year touring schools in Nigeria. He and his team chose a school
| 10 miles outside Nigeria's capital, Abuja, to deploy the company's
| first child-friendly laptops in the region.
`----
http://news.com.com/2300-1041_3-6175025-1.html?part=rss&tag=6175025&subj=news
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
Microsoft Happy with the Evolution of Windows Vista Piracy
,----[ Quote ]
| But the truth is that Microsoft is happy with the way Windows Vista
| piracy is evolving. Is there a catch to this? No. The fact of the
| matter is that Windows Vista has delivered a heavy blow to
| software counterfeiters. The reason for this is the new Windows
| Genuine Advantage security mechanism integrated into the
| operating system.
|
| You may not notice this on the surface. On the surface, the
| Internet is crawling with Windows Vista cracks, hacks and
| workarounds. On the surface, every Windows Vista edition has
| been cracked and is available for download via peer-to-peer
| networks. But this is not the true extent of Windows Vista piracy.
`----
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Happy-with-the-Evolution-of-Windows-Vista-Piracy-50577.shtml
Local U.S. immigration laws harm business: report
,----[ Quote ]
| She said software giant Microsoft decided to move one of its units to British
| Columbia, Canada, after an effort to legalize an estimated 12 million illegal
| immigrants and create a temporary worker program sought by business groups
| failed in the U.S. Senate in June.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/071207/immigration_business_laws.html?.v=1
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