Microsoft Denies Sabotaging Mandriva Linux PC Deal

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has denied sabotaging Mandriva's deal with the Nigerian government to supply Classmate PCs from Intel along with a customized Mandriva Linux operating system. 'From Microsoft's perspective it's a matter of choice. In the statement sent to InternetNews.com, Microsoft said it believes individuals, governments and other organizations should be free to choose the software and other technologies that best meet their needs. "We are seeing strong market demand for Windows on low-cost devices to help governments in the areas of education, local innovation, and jobs and opportunity," the Microsoft spokesperson said in the statement.' The company's denial is in response to Mandriva's CEO Francois Bancilhon expression of disappointment with Microsoft."

Slightly funny

"Microsoft has a strong relationship with the government in Nigeria and will continue to partner with government and industry to help meet their needs,"

How about "Microsoft has a strong relationship with the government and people in Nigeria and will continue to help meet their needs" ?

Maybe cynical - but history shows...

"Microsoft has a strong relationship with the government in Nigeria and will continue to partner with government and industry to help meet their needs,"

How about "Microsoft has a strong relationship with the government and people in Nigeria and will continue to help meet their needs" ?

I suppose by "their needs" they mean "Microsoft's needs". And the government has money and power, the people don't.

Re:Maybe cynical - but history shows...

Actually senior government officials in Nigeria need large amounts of cash stuffed in large envelopes and handed to them in cafe's in Switzerland. Of course this practice is not unique to Nigeria at least one former prime minister here in Canada have been known to indulge in this.

Re:Maybe cynical - but history shows...

WRONG!! I've got an official in Nigeria who's giving me 47 million dollars in exchange for me helping him secure an inheritance that he's taking from another official....

Re:Slightly funny

We both know Microsoft will continue to endeavor to maintain maximum synergy with the various heavy users of e-mail throughout Nigeria. A spokesperson was quoted as saying "We believe Exchance is the perfect solution forr the bulk amounts of e-mail commonly found in Nigeria's main industries".

Re:Slightly funny

How about "Microsoft has a strong relationship with the government and people in Nigeria and will continue to help meet their needs" ?

Should read: "Microsoft has a large bank account and will continue to slip cash to certain government officials in Nigeria." There, that fixed it.

You can have any OS you like as long as it's ours

"Microsoft said it believes individuals, governments and other organizations should be free to choose the software and other technologies that best meet their needs"

That choice is Vista Basic, Vista Home Premium, Vista Business, Vista Ultimate. Microsoft will do anything to make sure that they get a stronghold in emerging markets, they don't care what's best for the user (of course sometimes windows is the best option, doesn't mean it is all the time)

Re:You can have any OS you like as long as it's ou

12 or so years ago the days I sysadmined in an educational/research outfit in Eastern Europe. There was a 100% correlation between the so called local Microsoft rep for Education knowing about a shipment with Unix kit and the kit stolen at the cargo terminal. This was before the days of CCTV in the cargo areas at Sofia Airport so the interested parties had on the average between 2 and 12 hours to deal with all interesting containers and packages before they went through customs. In order to do that they needed one thing - to know which container is interesting.

Once we made sure that the aforementioned individual no longer had any information the shipments started arriving unmolested (not counting a dent or two in transit).

On top of that the aforementioned rep was handing out cracked copies of MSFT products the way drug dealers hand out cocaine laced candy to kids to anyone who wanted them.

This all continued until the country economy picked up enough. And then, you know the drill... Bill Gates having a meeting with the president on the subject of rampant software piracy and so on. The rep went to work elsewhere and claimed that he never ever had any relation with Microsoft. And so on...

Nuff said. No further comment necessary.

Re:You can have any OS you like as long as it's ou

How many companies out there care for what's "best for the user" if it doesn't involve their products?

how about

"Microsoft has strong (relatively cheap) relationship with the government in Nigeria and will continue to give them cash."

Standard business in accordance with the law.

Well, they can't afford for whole countries to escape the Windows hegemony.. It makes "business sense" for Microsoft to 'gift' or 'donate' whole slews of Windows licenses to a government to keep them in the fold. So then everyone else will need Microsoft to interoperate with them.
Their whole argument of "people should be free to choose the best software for the task" is a little tongue in cheek. After all, the initial procurement was probably far more lengthy and in depth than the quick 'jerk' reaction to taking MS on board afterwards. They did probably buy what was best for their requirements in the first place.
It would be interesting to see what laws on software dumping are present in Nigeria (not many, I'd estimate), so yes, they're obeying Nigerian law. Not necessarily the law as applies to the country that any given reader may be in.
So, they can happily state that while engaging in business practices that are illegal in countries other than the one they are making that transaction.

This kind of U turn (and added expenditure, if obeying the normal laws of the Western World) is not really possible without "greasing the wheels"..

Smoke and mirrors once again, Microsoft.

Oh really?

"We are seeing strong market demand for Windows on low-cost devices ..."

And so they respond with ending Win98 and WinXP while pushing Vista in spite of the fact that the vast majority of users don't want it?

Re:Oh really?

I realize that my own local sampling isn't a large enough sample, but at my office, 4 people have purchased new computers with Vista on them. Of those, exactly 4 people wanted me to reload them with Windows XP. That's approximately 100% of my users disliking Vista and regretting their purchase decision when they expected to like Vista because it was newer and supposedly better.

Title is Misleading

The title is misleading. Microsoft did not say it didn't 'sabotage' the deal, it said

Microsoft operates its business in accordance [...] with the laws of the countries in which it operates

In other words, Microsoft considers itself to be acting within the law. Since this is Nigerian law, I am not sure this is saying much (although perhaps the laws are enlightened but never applied - same result). Furthermore, even in US or European law there are plenty of legal actions that most people would consider unethical, and perhaps that is what happened here.

Yes, business can be cutthroat at times, but when you get a tiny competitor's product to not be used even after being ordered by the customer and yours to replace it, things seem highly suspect. Since this is in Nigeria I presume no anti-trust actions will occur, but the relevant officials should take note.

Re:Title is Misleading

Since this is in Nigeria I presume no anti-trust actions will occur, but the relevant officials should take note.

Oh, I'm sure they already took plenty of notes..

Well if they deny it...

"Microsoft has denied sabotaging Mandriva's deal [CC] with the Nigerian government to supply Classmate PCs from Intel along with a customized Mandriva Linux operating system.

It's puzzling though, I really would've thought they had something to do with it.
But if they say it wasn't them, it must be one of those freak events we keep reading about in News of the World.

Mandriva still got paid right?

So what's the big deal at the end of the day? It's a shame, but the Nigerian goverment could have just NOT gone with Mandriva at all.

Anti dumping laws

This 'deal' should be opened up and examined. If M$ is found to have provided the copies of MS Windows at below cost it should be taken to task using the anti dumping laws [freetrade.org] . All the financial aspects should be examined, including and 'free consultancy' and hardware donations/upgrades, ...

To an extent this is moot since the investigation will proceed at a glacial pace and by the time that it concludes it will all be a done deal.

A fine bit of Clintonesque "what 'is' is" spin

In one sense, the guy is right. The deal wasn't sabotaged, in the sense that the computers are being purchased with Mandriva.

OTOH, MS can't allow a large number of users to be exposed to Open Source software, so...

In unrelated news

the fox denied eating the chicken.

"Blood? What blood? Thats not chicken blood,
it is ketchup. I am a vegetarian!"

Thomas

Yeah, right

Microsoft's conviction for monopolistic practices in the EEC argues strongly against their spokesman's statement. Of course, when has a spokesman for a large corporation, especially MicroDreck, said anything that was more than tangentially connected with the objective truth?

You call thaT A DENIAL?

Cmon, for a PR persn,that is effectivly an admission of guilt, with a statement of "too bad, it is not illegal" tacked on.

Obvious LIES

"Microsoft has denied sabotaging Mandriva's deal with the Nigerian government..."

Then why is the Nigerian Government still paying Mandriva for the contract they was happy with (and still appear to be happy with it)? This is so obviously MS bunging them money AFTER they lost the fight, and telling them "Here you are, here is a few million to get rid of that and install Windows - we will pay for the loss".

Business as usual...

I've been reading the comments here and the comments on the previous article, and I'm surprised to see something missing.

Show of hands:
1. Who knows that Nigeria is an oil producing nation?

2. Who knows the Nigerian people see barely a thin dime of the money?

The government of Nigeria has shown itself to be easily corrupted at the expense of the people. See wikipedia [wikipedia.org] and read the part about the government. It's not hard to imagine something crooked going on with this.

Any word on how M$ is going to avoid massive amounts of pirating of software by unleashing their steaming pile of OS on a 3rd world nation? Or do they just assume that everybody there will pirate the stuff anyway so they just want to "sell" a few licenses in the process?

Hey Microsoft, give me a choice, please...

Let me choose between Linux, MAC OS-X or you bribing me to use Windows; just like you bribed the vote on document formats.

Hey Microsoft, are you now starting to realize that you are unable to compete in the marketplace without using the tainted money from your cash-cow monopoly?

New definition

Brings a new meaning to the words "Nigerian Scammer".

It's just "good" business.

I've seen cases like this before in the hardware business. Not very often, but it does happen occasionally. After a long hard sales cycle, Neal Nanotech decides to buy something from that hot new startup, Tyrell Corpration. The sales team from Cyberdyne Systems decides that they can't afford to lose NN as a customer, since they'll lose not only future sales and the income from the maintenance contract, but Tyrell will be able to use NN as a refernce in future ad campaigns. So, there's one last big push to a Senior VP, the President, or even the CEO. Typically, Cyberdyne offers a trade-in allowance for all of the Tyrell product at NN's full purchase price, while discounting Cyberdyne's prduct just enough to equal the trade-in. This way, NN isn't out any money (at least not initially) while Cyberdyne avoids violations of any anti-dumping laws. Cyberdyne then sends the brand-new Tyrell products straight to the recycling center. (Or maybe they resell it on eBay, with a good long offer period. "Look here, Mr. Potential Customer! How good can Tyrell's product be if people are dumping unopened boxes of it on eBay?")

Hope every MSFT customer demands the same deal

Well, if we generate enough publicity for this deal, may be all the customers of MSFT will start demanding equal treatment with Nigerian Govt. The would demand MSFT to sell its product at the same price Mandriva wold have sold their products. MSFT will tell small companies to just go fly a kite and will quietly cave in to big corporations. Mid level ones will get the deal or not depending on how tightly they are integrated with MSFT tools. But everyone will learn one cold hard fact. The only way to extract a good deal from MSFT is to be less dependent on its products.

How much Fear Uncertainty, Confusion, Extortion, and Doubt will be needed to maintain the revenue growth? (Someone please give me a good K-word to make a good acronym to upgrade FUD).

Point: microsoft cares

The interesting point is that Microsoft cared to reply to Mandriva. I thought that such a huge mastodonte as Microsoft don't care about small businesses like Mandriva. I find that the mere fact that Microsoft replied something is interesting.

Why even deny it?

Its called business, if you offer a 'sweeter' deal then the next guy, be it by a better products or deeper discounts, you make the sale.

This is hardly even news.

Choice?

Microsoft said it believes individuals, governments and other organizations should be free to choose the software and other technologies that best meet their needs.

As long as that "free to choose" doesn't include buying a comptuer at local retailers with Linux or no OS.

May I be the first to say

BULLSHIT.

In one conversation I had with my Nigerian-born business partner (OK stop laughing I'm serious. He's been a naturalized citizen for ten years, is a Christian, the son of a pastor, and I know one of his brothers as well. He's good people.) I learned that it's very much like India multiplied in that no decisions are made without palms being greased. I also learned that Nigerians who come to America will not do business with other Nigerians due to the level of corruption. It's not that all Nigerians are corrupt, it's just that corruption is so pervasive that they don't trust one another.

(Interesting thing about him: he's very suspicious, is more pro-American than most native-born Americans, gets far more involved in politics than most of us do, and yet when he sees evil going on in this country he doesn't complain. He just laughs and says evil people will do evil things, and what can be accomplished by talking about it and then continues on with his work. As an aside, he's the most productive worker I've ever encountered as well.)

My guess? Some official initially chose Linux as the sensible solution, and then Microsoft's money greased a high-level official's palms. I don't think it's necessarily Microsoft that did it, but a third party (plausible deniability, elimination of a paper trail involving even swag, etc.) which somehow benefits from the sale of Windows rather than installation of a(n) (inexpensive|free)/free OS.

Re:May I be the first to say

It must have been Microsoft. Nearly everyone else in the economy benefits from having an open OS. An open OS allows multiple competitors to play in the same market place which drives innovation and fair prices, I'd like to coin this concept as capitalism. Having Linux around would allow for a Nigerian Linux start-up to emerge and take hold of a decent chunk of the local population rather easily; since the government already uses Linux in the schools the kids would how to use it and the governments information infrastructure will grow with Linux in mind. Linux in general would be a very viable OS in this type of environment. These local compan(y|ies) would provide jobs to the economy, reduce imports and dependence on Microsoft, and possibly even provide an exportable service. It would also be a nice gateway into the technology industry (not sure what they have currently in Nigeria). So in short with Linux, customers benefit, government benefits, economy benefits, everyone but Microsoft walks home happy. This deal was definitely rigged by M$. (Yes, the $ is appropriate in this context.)

Err

I thought Microsoft was smart enough to avoid making any statement to these regards, I guess I was wrong. Although I feel relieved I am not dependent on their software anymore...

Long-term cost and application availability

In the previous thread on this issue, someone noted that this choice can in no way benefit the Nigerians, as in Linux you have a larger choice of free/opensource software than in Windows. I think that was an excellent point, and one I'd like the nigerian bigshot who made the decision of removing Linux to replace it with Windows, reply to.

Unless, of course, everybody involved just assumes that the Windows applications will be pirated. In which case, Microsoft is complacent and at least implicitly endorsing piracy.

Interpretation

"We are seeing strong market demand for Windows on low-cost devices to help governments in the areas of education, local innovation, and jobs and opportunity," the Microsoft spokesperson said in the statement.

- Which market, the US?
- Low-cost devices demand a low-cost OS, not one that costs the same as the hardware (or more)
- Education & local innovation by Windows? Most applications are shareware and innovation is killed by OS license & closed source
- Jobs & opportunity, by demanding technicians for the buggy OS, and demanding that each takes a lame MCSE license to get a job?

Their own statement stands against them... one just have to look at it from a non-MS angle.

Sabotage?

Who, Microsoft? No, they were just being competitive.

Wire us $$ and we will install your OS

We know from the letter, that the devices will be shipped with Mandriva Pre-installed. And that Mandriva has already been paid. It also seems likely that money has already changed hands in favor of the Nigerian government to support this "sudden change of heart".

Now, suppose you are one of the teachers that evaluated, and "qualified" the mandriva solution that comes pre-installed on the laptops, and you get this CD that says "Take 200 hours and install this untested, mystery OS on all 200 of your schools laptops, destroying the one you are already familiar with." How likely are you to actually comply? Will it come to MS deploying goons to ensure the software gets installed?

From a country that specializes in "Wire us some $$$ and you will be rich", it may be the case that MS marketing drones may be experiencing the joys of an industrial-scale 419 [419eater.com] scam.

Mandriva in Nigeria - Microsoft in Africa

Mandriva - only recently out of bankruptcy - is a small commercial Linux distribution employing less than 150 people world-wide and has perhaps eight million users. Mandriva [wikipedia.org]

Mandriva didn't have an office in west Africa until January of this year.

In contrast, Microsoft has hundreds of millions of users world-wide, directly employs 31,000 people abroad and has billions to spend on development projects in Africa and elsewhere in the third world.

A search of allAfrica.com" [allafrica.com] returns 1,300 hits for Microsoft and Nigeria in English alone.

Dismiss as many of these stories as you like as PR. The reality remains that to a Financial Minister, the Minister of Education, a partnership with Microsoft can make very good sense.

NGLUG, the Nigerian Linux Users Group [nglug.org] presents an earnest face. But stories such as these suggest that Linux has a long way to catch up with Microsoft in West Africa:

Linux girl bags first Novell certification in Nigeria [2005]
"You are the first Lady CLE in Africa and the first CLE in Nigeria - you have the highest mark so far amongst the other CLE's in Africa including South Africa."

"Linux Accademy of Nigeria has not started training and I have not found someone who knows when they will start." [August 2007]

And we should believe Microsoft because ... ?

I can't imagine that they would react any other way, unless it was by just ignoring the accusations. They certainly couldn't admit it.

OTOH, I'm not sure that "tortous interference with a business relationship" is an international crime, so maybe they *could* have safely admitted it. But if they did I'd imagine it might show up in various legal hearing on illegal monopolies (illegal use of monopoly?).

MS: Campaigning for the role of most loathed international criminal conspiracy.

I'd like to be there...

...when they realize that those 1 GB Mandriva Classmate PCs will need a 2GB flash chip to run Microsoft crapware.

Sabotaging?

I think its called competition.

Microsoft

Is...is that MY hand in the cookie jar?!

No, I deny it.

My hand has a strong relationship with the gov...er cookie jar and will continue to partner with said cookie jar and cookies to help meet their needs.

Wake Up Nigerian Citizens

Citizens of Nigeria, see what's happening in your country. Get to know how your tax paid money is spent by your government officials on software licenses. Can your government afford to change decisions after the lengthy evaluation and pay two vendors?

François could have appealed to the people pf Nigeria in his blog rather than openly accusing Ballmer.

Pervasive psychopathic lack of ethics

Microsoft doesn't have any sense of ethics. They have a pervasive psychopathic corporate culture and it starts right at the top. Balmer himself flew to Germany in an effort to sway the IBM/Munchen deal after it was signed with 'special offers', which to me is an attempt at bribery, but a psychopath won't see it that way.

Choices, choices....

Option a) Install Linux

Option b) Install Windows and have lots $$$ appears in your Swiss account

Take your time, you have a completely free choice....

Unlikely

Linux is a free download, no one can stop anyone from using it.

Yah right

Since that sort of things happen everyday in my country, and non-rich countries are almost always plagued with corruption, I'm sure they bribed them. Absolutely sure. Not that bribing does not occur in rich countries, but I sense governments seem to give a bit more thought to their people's best interest - not much, but I think that largely changes the outcome.

This deal is not fair.

Microsoft should learn their place and get lost.

two good outcomes if microsoft does get installed?

ok, so, ignoring the ethics of how Microsoft weaselled^Wassisted the change from linux to Windows, there are some possible good outcomes:

• MS actually manage to produce a new OS which is actually less bloated than their predecessors
• That the new MS OS proves to be so slow and bloated an insecure, it is dumped in a very public manner bringing shame to MS, and the OLPCs are reloaded with linux, the cost of which has to be born by MS

I just thought of another...

• that the whole exercise proves costly enough to MS to visibly dent their balance sheet, upsetting share holders (many/most? of whom are employees) causing their share to start falling, and the evil empire to come crumbling down supported as it is only by rickety chairs

Sorry, got carried away.

Baited?

Anyone stop to think Nigeria is the one pulling the strings here, not MS. I'm sure the Nigerian government was approached by MS before they decided to go with Mandriva. So why would they bait and switch? If they went with MS first they would pay top dollar. So they choose Mandriva to bait MS, then MS comes begging for them to use their OS. My guess MS gave them some sweet deal, either support and/or reduced or free software. Nigeria is not a innocent country by any means, they are one of the most corrupt governments on the planet. No matter what you think of MS Nigeria is worse! Also, don't play the sympathy card "they are a developing nation". They are a developing nation because their government is corrupt from the all the oil money they take.

Re:tagged STFU

I used to feel that way until I saw the Search Doggy in XP. How can you dislike a company that makes an OS with a Search Doggy?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=xp+search+dog&btnG=Google+Search [google.com]

Re:I don't see the problem

It's because they can smell a big huge stinky rat. There had been lengthy trials of both the OLPC and Classmate, and they chose a localised Mandriva PC over all comers from these lenthy trials, satisfied to the point of buying thousands. Then, once the deal is made, sealed and out the door, they decide the lengthy trials where MS competed and lost were wrong, and they needed an additional Microsoft software against their initial recommendations. It just stinks that they were offered the MS version, rejected it for an alternative, went through and purchased the alternative and then went back and changed their minds for additional cost to lock themselves into the MS monopoly.

Re:I don't see the problem

Because Mandriva can't use this case as a reference anymore.
They can't go to any potential buyers and show them that the Nigerian Goverment is using Mandriva and is very pleased with it.
Sure they get some money now, but this might cause them to loose sales in the future.

American's Pay Twice Too ...

Hey, Microsoft can get us computer users here in North America to pay twice for a computer operating system too. Once for the Vista license, and then a second time for the XP license ...

At least the Nigerian's only pay Microsoft once!

Re:tagged STFU

I'm not sure this AC is really trolling. I mean this is pretty much how I feel about it too. They're all a bunch of liars trying to see which one can spin out the right lie to get the sheeple to bend over and take some more. shrug.

Unfair mod

I lost my ability to mod by replying to a comment on this story - but the parent really doesn't seem to be flamebait. His reasoning is fair and his karma shouldn't suffer. He doesn't use strong language or provocative vocab, either. I think he got shafted.

Re:I don't see the problem

Its the future support Mandriva was counting on, that is how Linux Companies make their money. They sell support, because the OS is free. Maybe Niegera realized they got screwed paying for a free OS.