"They are trying to pull off an EDGI here in Brazil," explained a concerned member earlier this week. For those who don't know what EDGI is, start here. "I contacted Marcelo Branco," he added, "let's see if he will be interested on this.
It took some time to gather some important information regarding Mr. Ballmer's interests in Brazil. Actually, they (Microsoft) have been worried about IT here in Brazil since the election of our current president, Mr. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. In 2002, I picked this post, where they expressed concerning about the election of Lula and the directions of the policies regarding proprietary software in the government.
Early, in 2001/2002, he met with many politicians, even the governor of the federal district, Mr. Cristovam Buarque. In that time, there were donations of computers to public schools, from the federal government, but, with windows XP. When the government changed, and PT party took over, the story began to be different.
Then, Mr. Ballmer, since 2008, started to counter attack the adoption of Linux in Brazil, in the educational section, making deals with governors from rival parties of the worker's party (PT), the party of our president Lula, with the intention to wipe out Linux from the sight of the children.
In São Paulo, he met with José Serra, and made a deal regarding the Telecentros, which should never run on windows platform, because of the rampant virus/malware dissemination on this platform.
And, a press release from Microsoft itself, praising the deal with the state of São Paulo.
“The counter attack on Linux is being done in the states, not at federal level, where the government is pushing Linux very strongly.”Then, after his meetings from 2008, surprisingly, every state which the government is from the rival party of the president Lula is making educational deals with Microsoft.
São Paulo, in 2008, then Amazonas, Piaui, Pará, Goiás , Paraíba e now, Rio Grande do Sul.
The counter attack on Linux is being done in the states, not at federal level, where the government is pushing Linux very strongly. And so, they try to undo the actions of the federal government, they try to water down the interest in Linux, with bribery and job promises for the pauper, when we know where this indoctrination ends. Only Microsoft wins, the rest are just pawns in their game of interests.
...I'm sending this document[DOC]... regarding the situation in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. In this document, which is an internal memo, the folks of the education from Rio Grande do Sul state give the directions on how to pick up students for the Microsoft's Jovem Digital "indoctrination" educational program.
I hope you can do good use of these informations and expose these back stabbing actions disguised as philanthropy.
Comments
henriquemarks
2010-07-07 17:50:34
Yes, Microsoft tactics is this, but they are a company, trying to sell a product. What can Linux, as companies, do about ? Try to sell a better product for a smaller price.
In Rio Grande do Sul this had just happened, and now the program for teachers are offering computers with Windows and Linux. It is just about giving the user a choice, and it is happening here. Int his page you see the configuration and prices, with options for Windows and Linux, with Linux prices more or less 15% lower.
http://www.professor.rs.gov.br/index.php?acao=programa#modelos
So, here in Rio Grande, the fight of Free-Software Association had a result, and a good one: to give users a choice.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz
2010-07-07 18:01:05
henriquemarks
2010-07-07 18:10:42
We have two models in the technology market, the closed source and FOSS. You cannot impose one of them in the name of freedom. Freedom is to give a choice, and in this case it is happening.
If the teachers, using openoffice, starts to ask for homeworks with odf as an extension, students with old computers, that cannot produce this format (because of old openoffice versions) will have any choice (or freedom as you say). I know the opposite is going to happen (.docx, .doc) and i dont like it either.
I agree with all your points about lock-in,proprietary software, ugly tactics, etc. But i am giving valuable information for your news. If you want to neglect, thats your problem
Dr. Roy Schestowitz
2010-07-07 19:07:41
Agent_Smith
2010-07-08 15:56:15