Mandriva's Open Letter To Steve Ballmer

An anonymous reader writes "An entry on the Mandriva Blog, written by Mandriva CEO François Bancilhon, says that the Nigerian government, after ordering thousands of Classmate PCs with Mandriva Linux installed, has suddenly decided that they will instead install Windows. They will pay for the pre-loaded Mandriva Linux on the low-cost computing devices intended for children in the developing world, but immmediately replace the OS. The blog doesn't quite use the 'B' word but does suggest that this was not a decision that the Nigerian government made on its own."

Nigeria

[stoolpigeon]

I'm not even sure that Nigeria is a real country. I keep sending government officials there money - and they keep saying I'll be rich but it never happens. How do you bribe people like that?

Re:excuse my stupidity

[Anonymous Coward]

Bevelopers, bevelopers, bevelopers!

Re:Nigeria

[AmaDaden]

Tell them that you COULD send them money but only if they were running just the right operating system...

Wait,,,

[hkgroove]

But they will only only be able to pay for the rest of the Windows licenses after Ballmer sends the first 1000 licenses upfront, which will enable them to free up the treasury money.

Someone is going to say it, I'll say it first

[jollyreaper]

REDMONT, WASHINGTON.

ATTENTION: THE PRESIDENT/DICTATOR

DEAR SIR,

CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL

HAVING CONSULTED WITH MY COLLEAGUES AND BASED ON THE INFORMATION GATHERED FROM THE MICROSOFTIAN CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY, I HAVE THE PRIVILEGE TO REQUEST FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE TO TRANSFER THE SUM OF $47,500,000.00 (FORTY SEVEN MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS) INTO YOUR ACCOUNTS. IF YOU ARE ABLE TO REPLACE THE LINNEX SOFTWARES ON THE PC COMPUTER LAPTOPS YOU HAVE PURCHASED WITH WINDOWS, WE WILL BE ABLE TO GIVE YOU A KICKBA--CONSULTING FEE FOR YOUR TROUBLED ASSISTANCE.

YOURS IN MAMMON,

WILLIAM (BILL) GATES.CX

frickin' lameness filter, that's what the scams look like, how else am I supposed to write them? Don't mess with my joke. Defeat the filter, clog the filter, replace the filter with genuine GM parts....

Re:Pretty bold.

[Otter]

The above is a perfect example of a "straw man" argument.

Please note: the appropriate way to make such a point here is:

The above is a perfect example of a "straw man [wikipedia.org]" argument.

Once that's mastered, you can move on to more advanced forms, such as:

The above [wikipedia.org] is a perfect example [wikipedia.org] of a "straw man" argument.

Interesting comment

[ddrichardson]

From the comments:

Anonymous said,

November 1, 2007 at 4:02 am

François,

Why are you assuming that Microsoft did something underhanded? It could very well be the case that a deal with Microsoft is more viable for the Nigerian goverment in the longer run -

- Their products are tried and trusted. Yours is still an unknown quantity.

- Their customer support is supposedly very good. How about yours?

- Maybe the TCO for Microsoft's solution is lower than your solution.

I'm in no way taking sides. But you must be willing to accept the possibility that Microsoft could have presented a better long term deal for them.

-Anonymous

Wow, I can't imagine where that post might have originated from?

They have to do the evolution also

[noddyxoi]

begin troll:
So I began in DOS 3.3, then i upgraded to 5.0 , 6.0 windows 3.1 ... windows NT, 95, 98, me, xp, with some linuxes, redhat, slackware, etc in the middle and then i finished my OS evolution in Mandrake, that latter became Mandriva.

I paid for all the hardware/software from my pocket in between all those evolutions. And now those ugly, poor, ignorant, future scammers africans kids will get a free laptop that would come with the best OS i found until today for free ?!?!? NO WAY !!!! Make them known that evolution doesn't come for free ! GIVE THEM VISTA !!! Make them know that evolution has a path and a price ! Leave them to suffer with Vista light with DRM and crippleware, don't forget to install norton antivirus and WGA. After that when they think that they can live well without computers offer them slackware linux, them give them gentoo, and when they understand the evolution of the OS finally let them install Mandriva. :end troll

Re:Pretty bold.

[plague3106]

Except they've already paid for the Mandriva to come pre-loaded. So Mandriva already put in the winning bid.

Its not hard to win a bid when you're the only bidder..

How can Microsoft undercut something that's already been paid for, apart from giving money per copy of Windows installed?

Perhaps they will charge less and include more support options? Perhaps they'll throw in some licenses for government use?

And when you end up giving money to a government to use something, yes, people do tend to use the word 'bribery' a little.

You don't have any proof that MS gave money for them to ditch Mandriva, do you? Perhaps their offer is better than Mandriva's was, but the government already signed a contract.. so they are paying just to satisfy it.

So, which officals do you think personally received money from MS, and why? Where's your proof? Certainly offering the government a cheaper price or a service package is not bribery, or the simple process of bidding for government contracts would be bribery.

Re:excuse my stupidity

[somersault]

They'll be learning a new one in Nigeria soon anyway.. BSOD!

Re:Pretty bold.

[Anonymous Coward]

The above [wikipedia.org] is a perfect example of a douchebag [wikipedia.org] making a retarded [wikipedia.org] comment.

TANSTAAFL

[Hognoxious]

Come on, who'd be dumb enough to fall for a cock and bull story like that?

Re:Intel & Microsoft Vs OLPC

[Anonymous Coward]

> probably would have found it more easily

labia..?