p2pnet - rss feed: Mandriva open letter to Steve Ballmer
p2pnet news | Open Source:- “Microsoft CEO and incontinent over-stater of facts Steve Ballmer (right) said that ‘Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches,’ during a commercial spot masquerading as a media interview with the Chicago Sun-Times …”
That’s intro to story in The Register from way back, and Steve’s views haven’t changed a bit.
With that as background, the open letter below from Mandriva Linux won’t come as much of a surprise;
“Dear Steve,” blogs François, from Mandriva >>>
I’m sure we’re way too small for you to know me. You know, we’re one of these tiny Linux company working hard for our place on the market. We produce a Linux Distro, Mandriva Linux. The last edition, Mandriva 2008 was seen as a pretty good version and we’re proud of it. You should give it a spin, I’m sure you’d like it. We also happen to be one of the Linux companies that did not sign an agreement with your company (nobody’s perfect).
We recently closed a deal with the Nigerian Government. Maybe you heard about it, Steve. They were looking for an affordable hardware+software solution for their schools. The initial batch was 17,000 machines. We had a good answer to their need: the Classmate PC from Intel, with a customized Mandriva Linux solution. We presented the solution to the local government, they liked the machine, they liked our system, they liked what we offered them, the fact that it was open, that we could customize it for their country and so on.
Then your people entered the game and the deal got more competitive. I would not say it got dirty, but someone could have said that. They fought and fought the deal, but still the customer was happy to get CMPC and Mandriva.
So we closed the deal, we got the order, we qualified the software, we got the machine shipped. In other word, we did our job. I understand the machine are being delivered right now.
And then, today, we hear from the customer a totally different story: “we shall pay for the Mandriva Software as agreed, but we shall replace it by Windows afterward.”
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.
cheers
François
PS: a message to our friends in Nigeria: it’s still time to do the right thing and make the right choice, you will get lots of support for it and excellent services!
Stay tuned.
Also See:
The Register - Ballmer: “Linux is a cancer”, June 2, 2001
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November 1st, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Microcrap has a monopoly on being unethical. They will lie, backstab, cheat, and pretty much anything else you can think of. The recent ISO vote rigging for OXML (and no, it’s not an open standard, it’s controlled by Microcrap) comes to mind. In short, don’t turn your back on them for one moment.
November 1st, 2007 at 6:25 pm
So let me get this strait.
When a person buys a PC with Windows on it and switches to Linux it means that “they’ve come to their senses”.
But the moment that they have bought a PC with Linux in it and decides that it’s not what they want, it’s trickery, backstabbing and unethical?
I am by no means a Pro-any-OS fanboy, and I have used different OSs from the TRS-80s to HP to Apple ][ all the way to recent version of both Windows and various version of Linux. I have even tried BeOS, TRON, and MacOS (I hated Mac OS 8 though
).
Each OS has it’s good points and bad points, and of course any normal company or developer will swear up and down that their system is the best over the other. If they didn’t, they shouldn’t be in the business.
What is important is that the user is able to choose- they may choose your favorite OS over a different OS, or they may take a machine with your OS in it, and re-install it with another OS, because they choose to.
It goes both ways, and it should.
Who knows, maybe the IT personnel in Nigeria didn’t want to get sacked for other IT personnel who knew how to use Mandriva Linux. Or maybe there was a powerful government official who was being pressured by his son because his son couldn’t get WoW to work on the machine out of the box…
But no matter what the reason is, as long as you say that others should have the right to use your OS over another, the same can and often will happen to your OS.
Just my two cents
November 1st, 2007 at 10:33 pm
@just my two cents
Read between the lines:
Microsoft is giving them operating systems for nothing with an unknown added incentive
They know that if a poor country starts with one operating system they will continue on with it as it is basically a license with a endless subscription. Eventually the poor country will pay so they don’t have to switch when they don’t get support anymore.
Linux (which I have never used) would allow them to grow Mandriva into a prosperous company due to potential install base. Likewise, Mandriva has a chance to help a nation enter the modern world without robbing it of its resources like the Microsoft Economic Hit Men will through leveraged debt that will guarantee Nigeria gives away its resources
November 2nd, 2007 at 8:05 am
@Reader’s Write
I understand what you are saying, but as far as I can see, Microsoft is not forcing the Nigerian people to use their OS.
So, if they give Windows operating system to the “Poor country” for free, and the Mandriva Linux OS is “free” (included in the price of the PC) then that means that they actually have a choice on what OS they want to use.
If the do choose Microsoft, they may end up screwed when they try to upgrade, but that is a result of their choice. They may end up “going back” to Mandriva after using MS’s OS for a couple of months, and they may use the MS OS on their system for many years to come (I mean there are still people in the US with Windows 95 and Windows 98 running on their system, and they don’t care).
Complaining about buying a PC, and changing the OS out for another OS sounds like many people that I know who buy Notebook PCs with Windows installed, format the disk, and install Ubuntu. And complaining about how unfair this is, is the same thing that many were accusing MS of doing a while back.
I am sorry but if Madriva was not able to hold on to its customer in the initial stage, then that is their fault. Would as many people be whining if this was Apple offering Macs with Leopard installed in exchange for each system? I am sure the fanboys would be having a field day about the story (except those who would try to sue Apple for giving away computers, when they just bought a new Mac).
I really feel that it is a shame that Mandriva has lost its Nigerian user base to MS, but that is business, but as I have said before, unless MS was putting a gun to the Nigerian government’s head if they didn’t use windows, and Mandriva was being asked for a refund for each of the PCs, I am sorry but I can’t feel any sympathy for them.
Just my two cents
November 2nd, 2007 at 7:40 pm
Money money money to the right persons changed this deal I bet, why should the Nigerian officials be any different then the U.S. Government. Miro Soft is scared to death of linux and will strike out any way they can to stop linux. The problem is the bongos are getting louder and louder and the day has arrived key word Russia. The Russian school system are moving to linux because of the cost of Microsoft products.
Here is the root cure for all this copyright , linux and Microsoft problems, Nationalize all the copyright for all the operating systems. As was done for the wheat harvesting machine patent, declare that the copyrights are so important to the world and it’s function that no one man or company shall control them. All code should be open to the world.
November 3rd, 2007 at 9:17 am
The true cost of making this change will rear its ugly head later. This is kind of like the operating system equivalent to handing out too many sub-prime mortgages to people who lack any real financial security.
March 29th, 2008 at 10:11 am
What no one gets and doesn’t get to experience are the dirty, under handed tactics that Microsoft takes to get the deal. I have experienced it first hand on government level acquisitions. Believe me when I say it was all about ‘winning’ and nothing about the good that could be done or the satisfaction or truth for the customer.
I love a lot of different OSes, including Windows. My enemy is Microsoft the company. I also believe Bill Gates has a very good heart and means well. I also can clearly see that he has a dark side. A competitive side. A side that desires to dominate and control everything. Winning for the sake of winning, and that is never good. Period.