Vietnam marries Microsoft
p2pnet.net news:- In a major world marketing coup, Bill and the Boyz say the Vietnam government has agreed to use Microsoft software, and only Microsoft software.
Calling it a blow against piracy, Microsoft ceo Steve Ballmer was on hand today as the agreement was signed.
“The agreement demonstrates very strong commitments of the government of Vietnam,” in protecting intellectual property rights, Associated Press has prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung telling Ballmer before the signing ceremony.
Said Ballmer said in a statement, “I see a prosperous future ahead for Vietnam, and the country is doing the right things by looking now at how it can foster a healthy local software ecosystem, which will help open up this market to the rest of the world.”
AP quotes the BSA (Business Software Alliance), of which Microsoft is a founding ‘member,’ as saying Microsoft Windows can be bought in Vietnam for as little as 50 cents.
Ballmer also, “participated in an online chat hosted by the Web-based newspaper Vietnamnet during his one-day visit to Hanoi, the first stop on a weeklong trip to Malaysia, Singapore and Australia,” says the story, adding:
“Local information technology developers said Ballmer visit will be another boost to the country’s IT industry following Gates’ visit and Intel Corp.’s kicking off construction a $1 billion semiconductor plant in southern Vietnam last month.”
Also See:
Associated Press – Vietnam Agrees to Use Licensed Software Only, May 21, 2007
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
May 21st, 2007 at 8:02 pm
OH groovy, a (vaguely marxist) third-world hellhole’s government agrees to use Micro%uck’s shitty products exclusively. And? Let’s be honest here: Governments — ALL of them — are ultimately totally irrelevant to what actually happens in the world.
The whole vast fiction of “law” was invented so that an ever-growing element of the population (’lawyers’, ‘politicians’, and ‘lobbyists’) could exist as nonproductive paper-pushing parasited on the REAL activities of the world (those done by businesses, nonprofit organizations, and individuals).
Government exists, primarily, to hijack and micromanage every aspect of our lives. Some of them are just more efficient than others — hence the idea of the “total” State.)
Governments that use stuff bugware queefed up by Micro$hit are a GOOD thing, in that such is bound to add to the ineficiency, ineptness, and general fucked-up-ness that is the ONLY thing that keeps Governmental tyranny at bay. (The last thing the world needs is a truly EFFICIENT Government.)
Shaky, crash-prone, virus-prone, trojan-prone, easily-hijacked, generally shitty bugware is just what all Governments everywhere SHOULD use.
May 21st, 2007 at 10:00 pm
I’ll give you three guesses as to who goes first, but you’ll probably only need one.
LOL