07.11.13
Gemini version available ♊︎Microsoft Tries in Phones the Same Bribery Strategy It Allegedly Tried for Elimination of GNU/Linux in Sub-notebook
Microsoft is trying to kill GNU/Linux in Kenya
Nairobi
Summary: Microsoft, which repeatedly tried paying those who embraced GNU/Linux to change course, is reportedly expanding this expensive strategy and may soon implement staff cuts to subsidise this misguided last resort
Microsoft and Apple are not doing as well as their investors are led to believe. The costs of computers are declining owing to GNU/Linux with affordable and energy-efficient ARM/Tegra chips. People realise that such systems better guard their freedom, too. More and more nations are now turning to FOSS for ideological reasons, not just purely technical or economic reasons. Microsoft and Apple try litigation as a business plan, but they are mostly failing. In the mean time, Apple’s value nosedives and Microsoft is scrambling to restore its illegal monopoly.
“More and more nations are now turning to FOSS for ideological reasons, not just purely technical or economic reasons.”Over in Kenya, where Microsoft has used very dirty tactics [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], it is reported that Microsoft is still trying to crush GNU/Linux using a familiar strategy. “The Linux Professional Institute has opposed a move by Microsoft to partner with the Kenyan government in an ambitious US$2 billion laptop project,” says an new report. It adds that: “During a visit last month, Microsoft International President Jean Philippe Courtois met with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and announced a training partnership, a move that has received mixed reactions. The plan calls for the government to issue a laptop to every child enrolling in primary school next year.”
The man behind this push from Microsoft is a really malicious and dangerous sociopath, Mr. Courtois [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. They should seriously watch out. Rebecca Wanjiku of IDG covered this and she cites IDC, part of IDG (not stating the conflict). What we see here is a repetition of the war on OLPC. Microsoft used the same tactics to destroy that project and LPI seems to have learned a lesson, not just given lessons. “The Linux Professional Institute in Kenya has issued a position paper on the partnership, saying that it is a move to lock children to one operating system,” says the report. That is correct and we know this based on a long, agonising experience. It is not unusual for Microsoft to even bribe Africans to abandon GNU/Linux, as we showed in prior years.
“…don’t expect Microsoft not to try to sabotage such liberation efforts.”The final point made by IDG is, “The Linux Professional Institute in Kenya is hoping to convince the country’s leadership to explore and adopt open source solutions and join other countries that have done so, including Germany, Spain, France, China, Brazil, India, and South Korea.”
That is good stuff, but don’t expect Microsoft not to try to sabotage such liberation efforts. Now that the company is collapsing [1, 2] and more layoffs might be imminent the gloves are off and bribes are abundant. Here is the latest.
Nokia, which is now a pawn of Microsoft, not so long ago tried to help Microsoft gain leverage in sub-notebooks (netbooks), after Microsoft had allegedly bribed netbook makers to have them drop GNU/Linux.
According to this, Microsoft is doing that in phones now. To quote IDG:
Microsoft kicks back $5-$10 to resellers who peddle select Windows 8 hardware
Starting today, Microsoft will give resellers up to $10 for each device they sell from a list of 21 Windows 8 touch-enabled PCs and tablets, company executives said.
The new program is the latest move by Microsoft to kick up sales, which on the PC side have been downright depressing. Research firm IDC, for instance, has forecast a decline of nearly 8% for 2013, and has already hinted that the drop may be even steeper. In tablets, Microsoft has had little luck in making much of an inroad into a market dominated by operating systems built by rivals Apple and Google.
But the selective nature of the incentive program — fewer than two dozen different devices qualify — shows it’s also a continuation of a strategy Microsoft has used since last summer’s launch of the Surface line, when the company said it entered the hardware business to have a platform that really flaunted Windows 8.
Well, if bribing is Microsoft’s expensive strategy, then no wonder there’s such a mess coming later today. Can Microsoft continue its quarterly layoffs while distracting the press?
CEO Steve Ballmer expected to announce dramatic restructuring around services and hardware this week, sources tell AllThingsD.
That’s later today. Pay careful attention to what they are trying to hide. A “reorg” is always bad news, wrapped up in heavy PR (mass-mailing journalists, ghost-writing, comment AstroTurfing, et cetera). █
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