Summary: Microsoft accused of blocking GNU/Linux and more leaks about this scandal are high in demand

THREE WEEKS ago we were offered some leaks that expose more corruption (see links at the bottom) behind the Magalhães initiative. No sooner than yesterday we found the following post in USENET:

Subject: Magalhães: Microsoft made pressure to make it not possible to choose another operating system From: Lusotec Date: Wednesday 17 Mar 2010 22:57:50 Groups: comp.os.linux.advocacy

<quote translated from Portuguese> According to Paulo Trezentos, in the inquire commission to the Foundation€ for the Mobile Communications

Magalhães: Microsoft made pressure to make it not possible to choose another€ operating system.

€ € € € A representative of the company Caixa Mágica (Linux) - software supplier€  for the Magalhães - Paulo Trezentos, said yesterday in the inquire€ commission to the Foundation for the Mobile Communications (FMC) that€ Microsoft made pressures so that the users of the device could not choose€ the operating system.

(...)

The Magalhães computer provides 'dual boot', meaning, it has installed two€ operating systems - Windows XP and Linux - and the users can choose in which€ they want to start the work.

However, a representative of the Caixa Mágica, company responsible for the€ installation of Linux on the Magalhães computers, said yesterday that€ Microsoft made pressures to make this choice not possible, so that Windows€ would start automatically.

"Microsoft used all kinds of pressures so that Windows would start€ automatically, but both the Ministry of Education and the JP Sá Couto€ succeed" in making it possible to select the operating system., said Paulo€ Trezentos, during the audition in the inquire commission to the FMC.

(...) </quote> http://www.publico.pt/Tecnologia/magalhaes-microsoft-...

For those that don't know, Magalhães computers are laptops that where€  supplied to almost all of the nearly half million Portuguese elementary€  students, ages 6 to 10. The Magalhães laptops had both Windows XP and Caixa€ Mágica, a distribution based on Mandriva but adapted to the Portuguese€ market.

Also to make it clear, this particular news puts focus on Microsoft but the€ inquire commission main objective is to investigate the spending of public€ funds by the FMC. Microsoft's actions are not central to the inquire.

As for the news, it is just Microsoft's traditional and unethical way of€ doing business. Fortunately this time it was unsuccessful.

Regards.

Can any of our Portuguese readers obtain/gain access to those sensitive documents that we keep hearing about? As the links below show, Microsoft corruption in Portugal is rather commonplace, but publishing concrete proof would be invaluable. ⬆

Related posts:

• Silverlight/Microsoft Required for Public Procurement in Portugal
• Open Letter to the Portuguese Ministry of Education
• Microsoft's Magalhães Laptops Scam and OOXML Scandals in Portugal Associated with Fraud?
• Microsoft CEO Might Try to Shoot Down Portugal's Open Standards Bill
• The Games Microsoft Plays in Portugal to Fight Free Software
• Eye on Microsoft: Portugal Visit, Regrets, and Vista Lies
• Portugal Stands Up Against Microsoft Corruption
• Government of Portugal Ignores Procurement Rules and Gives Taxpayers' Money to Microsoft
• Russia Continues Migration to GNU/Linux in Government, Microsoft Creates New Prevention Measures
• Jose Socrates Caves to His Friend Bill Gates and Gives up Portugal's Digital Sovereignty
• Microsoft Already Uses IDC Study it Paid for to Further Digitally Colonise India and Portugal