Watching the "Anti-competition Budget" at play

To make maximal use of cross-linking and in order to avoid wastefully repeating stories, you are encouraged to read the following recent posts if you have not:

• Bill Gates Invades the Land of Linus, Uses Dumping Techniques
• How Microsoft 'Bought' Nicolas Sarkozy, France, and Parts of Europe
• Forbes Magazine Bias and the Anti-Linux “Charities”

The gist of some of these postings is that money and influence are used to elbow GNU/Linux out of the way. It usually goes under the guise of "charity". There are more early examples, such as this one from yesterday:

During his visit to the Government Leaders Forum - Arabia in Abu Dhabi, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates announced a number of partnerships aimed at driving IT development in Arabian countries. According to the Microsoft Press Centre, these include strategic partnerships between the Mohammed Bin Rashid Foundation and Microsoft to promote IT research via a "knowledge platform", and with the Dubai Cares organization to establish a further education programme for teachers and parents. Microsoft will also provide free email, messaging and online storage facilities to 650,000 high-school students in Oman in an arrangement similar to one the company recently set up with the Jordanian Universities Network.

Groklaw has just found another: Agenda du Maire

It's in French, but here is what Groklaw says:

[PJ: Uh oh. According to this page, Bill Gates and the Mayor of the City of Paris are meeting today, after some agreement between them was signed.] - Agenda due Maire, Paris

Mind our writings about France (link at the top) and remember that France, Paris included, is increasingly committing itself to GNU/Linux. Even the Parliament moved to GNU/Linux.

We we said before, Bill Gates only 'retired' to do some more lobbying. He has been doing a lot of traveling recently and we covered many similar such incidents. Not so long ago we mentioned Colombia.

Here is the strategy put bluntly: If you can't sell something, reach out for the Suits and sign a binding contracts to get around the real needs of a country or a company. ⬆

"There won’t be anything we won’t say to people to try and convince them that our way is the way to go."

--Bill Gates (Microsoft's CEO at the time)