Microsoft’s games in emerging markets

November 9, 2007 · Filed Under Techno-Bab · 5 Comments 

Recently, a deal with the Nigerian government to install and use Mandriva Linux on 17,000 Intel Classmate PCs got derailed when the government decided to overwrite the installed operating system with Windows XP.

Christopher Dawson of ZDnet wonders why Nigeria had taken a decision to overwrite Windows on Mandriva Linux, after extensively testing a Classmate PC loaded with the Linux distro and vouching for its excellent performance.

Well, The Nigerian Government is going to pay for the PCs as well as the Mandria Linux installation, but they have chosen to run the machines on Windows. Reason? Quite obvious, says the ZDnet story, since Microsoft has a lot to lose if the next billion computers sold in the world don’t run Windows and 1/7th of the world doesn’t see Windows and PC as necessarily going hand in hand.

Stakes are very high indeed. And you have to play the game to save your foothold, call it by any epithet you like, but that is not going to make my bills smell bad!

And you want to know more about this sordid affair?

François Bancilhon, CEO of MandrivaHere is the first hand account of the happenings from Monsieur François Bancilhon, CEO of Mandriva himself!

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Still more on Microsoft

November 3, 2007 · Filed Under Funny · Comment 

Microsoft (read Windows) is something that almost everyone loves to hate! Microsoft-bashing is the pet pastime in the Geekosphere especially amongst the Open Source aficionados and Free Software evangelists!

And it is the butt of jokes that make rounds around the internet as many times as the earth spins around itself!

But even the blogs that predominantly dwell on Microsoft’s applications like .NET, c# etc seem to have joined the fray, as found in one such blog’s masthead:

Evil Empire

And it is the butt of college humor ad nauseum!

Here is a couple of videos for passing your time (but don’t forget to genuflect before the Redmond God!) :-

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Be really afraid of Microsoft!

November 1, 2007 · Filed Under Techno-Bab · 1 Comment 

Windows RGHere are some “snafus” and intentional monkeying by the ultimate boogeyman of computer world, Microsoft of Windows, as reported by Robert X. Cringely in his latest column:

  • Windows Update automatically installed Windows Desktop Search 3.01 on systems that had been configured not to run the resource-hogging application. Microsoft’s response? “Oops, sorry.”
  • The forced update has caused many users’ systems to suffer an involuntary reboot earlier this month. The culprit? Windows Live OneCare, which automatically changes your Update options to be automatic even if you had disabled it.
  • The vulnerability that allows a malicious PDF file to turn your PC into a zombie is yet to be fixed, even after three months. a patch is still coming!

And do you really wanna play around with next (Scoop! Don’t you reveal this to anyone!) Windows Really Good Edition?

Then Click Here!

Here is how BOB concludes the story:

The ugly truth is that Microsoft is using security fears to force its enslaved base (that would be you and me) into installing stuff it wants us to have. Somebody needs to put a stake through its heart, before it kills again.

The moral of the story is:

UbuntuGo Ubuntu, oh, Ubuntu!!

“Smart, Secure and Easy!”

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