Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft is Exploiting Portuguese Taxpayers to Build Nation of 'Addicts'

Steve Ballmer's visit to Portugal was foreseen (but expected) quite a while ago, later to be analysed further. Very memorable were also the OOXML scandals in that country and the possible AstroTurfing. There's lots more to be said about evidence that has already been covered, but fresh from the news we have another new and disturbing development that may or may not explain Steve Ballmer's sudden visit, which we suspected all along to be a move against Free software in the country.



According to the following text, Microsoft wants children of Portugal to become dependent on Windows and Office. A partnership with Magellan is being touted.

Microsoft's investment in the Magellan Learning Suite is designed to encourage targeted, international adoption of the Magellan educational computers by addressing the need for relevant software and content, user support, digital literacy, and broad scalability...


Reread the quoted text if necessary. There is a cash infusion and Microsoft's talk about "digital literacy" is mostly a reference to GUIs, including the start menu, security 'skills', Word, and perhaps services like Live@edu. "Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced significant Microsoft investment in the Magellan Initiative through the Microsoft Unlimited Potential program," it says. As we stressed many times before (e.g. here and here), "Unlimited Potential" is more of an anti-GNU/Linux program, operated under the guise of 'helping' poor children.

Here are some pictures from the visit and here is an article from Reuters, which describes this latest development in English.

Microsoft launched on Friday a software package for a Portuguese ultra-cheap laptop for school children that the government hopes will boost the country's technological edge in education.

Portugal started rolling out the "Magellan" computer at schools last month. It aims to hand out a total 500,000 of the laptops, which cost just 50 euros ($69.29) for school children, at home and export it to countries in Latin America and Africa.


What about those 1 million laptops that shall go to Venezuela and are said to be running GNU/Linux? The initiative above may have a 'domino effect' that transcends Portugal's borders. It's all just intended to put Microsoft's proprietary software on low-cost notebooks, which, at least for students, are funded by the government (i.e. taxpayers).

Steve BallmerYes, that's people's tax money going into the funding of children's addiction to Microsoft so that Microsoft will be paid by them when they grow up and only recognise one brand of software.

Some people might say that GNU/Linux is still available as an option, but it's not even being mentioned, no manual is provided for it, and as this recent post stated, "[t]he software "choice" is false." It's part of the diplomacy.

One comment which out readers have highlighted is this one:

"curiosamente, é também hoje que se a inicia a Semana do Open Office em Portugal, com uma apresentação da versão 3.0 no Forum Picoas, em Lisboa; mas a essa não se dá destaque - não é "Microsoft driven"."

More information (in Portuguese) can be found under:

  1. 1 pergunta a… José Sócrates


  2. Ballmer formaliza apoio ao Magalhães


  3. Magalhães é excelente oportunidade de negócios para Portugal - Steve Ballmer


  4. Steve Ballmer em Portugal a propósito do Magalhães


  5. o grande golpe à Microsoft !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Thanks to all those who provided valuable tips to make this post possible.

People do not require Microsoft for their education; they require education to better understand how Microsoft is exploiting them.

“They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.”

--Bill Gates

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 28/08/2025: Chatbots Distorting/Fabricating History and Also Driving Suicide
Links for the day
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
 
Richard Stallman (RMS) Talk in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress Will be Remote
This past week RMS received lots of accolades online
The Register MS (Run by Microsoft Operatives): Free Software is Putin, Hence Evil and Dangerous
The current editor in chief is an American Microsofter, the previous one went to work for Google (US)
Gemini Links 28/08/2025: Back in Japan and Why "Hacker News" Sucks
Links for the day
A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
There are several lessons in there
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, Slopfarms in Google News, and More
Some readers of ours end up sending us links that are from slopfarms, not realising those are slopfarms
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Katrina Memories and Google Versus Software Freedom
Links for the day
Links 27/08/2025: Police Against Media Freedom in the UK, Energy-Hungry Countries Targeted by China
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Fell to All-Time Lows in Egypt This Summer, Vista 11 Adoption Decreases While GNU/Linux Increases
Vista 11 is going down rather than up
Links 27/08/2025: Microsoft Demoralises Staff With Slop Demands, Leaving Mastodon Explained
Links for the day
12 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Fake (Paid-for) Article, But This One for a Change Did Not Promote a Ponzi Scheme
There are also Free software alternatives, but they don't pay The Register MS for "synthetic" so-called 'journalism'
More People Need to Call Out and Put a Stop to Serial Sloppers
Unless slopfarms are stopped, people will read and share Microsoft propaganda made by chatbots
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Headphones and Tartarus
Links for the day
Morale at Microsoft is Terrible (Proprietary Plagiarism Machines Have No Future, LLM Slop is a Bubble)
The slop sceptics/critics are going to have lots of "told you so" moments
GNOME "governance issues, staff reduction, etc." amidst Albanian whistleblowing and women trafficking
Notice the connection to Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and GNOME
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Richard Stallman (RMS) Was Right About "Sideloading" in 1996
We now have computers that treat booting GNU/Linux like an act of "Sideloading"
Panama: Windows Down From 97% "Market Share" to Less Than 30%
In 2009, Windows was measured at 97.24% (compared to 62.32% right now or less than 30% if one also counts Android)
The UEFI 9/11 - Part I - Introduction to Impending Catastrophe (Microsoft Preventing People From Booting Non-Windows Systems)
eight-part series
Why Techrights is Slow Today (Bot Floods)
We don't know if those bots are connected to LLMs (we have not checked), but that is a possibility
Slopwatch: DDoS Slop, LinuxBSDos.com Spam, and Slopfarms in Google News, Including webpronews.com
Among the news we also found fakes, albeit not so much today
Links 26/08/2025: "Ballooning Debt" in France and "Transnational Repression in the UK"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/08/2025: Listening to Alcest and Google Doing Evil (Users Installing Software is "Sideloading" and Prohibited)
Links for the day
Links 26/08/2025: DNS Tampering and TikTok Layoffs
Links for the day
Microsoft's Windows "Market Share" Overestimated
Microsoft's income sources are shrinking
We Shall See...
My wife and I are hardly the first victims of Brett Wilson LLP
This New Determination on a Case Echoes the Modus Operandi of Microsoft's Serial Strangler vs Techrights (Its Online Decision/Judgment Says Truth and Public Interest Defend the Publisher)
Noel Anthony Clarke hopefully has enough money left to pay his victims, which include the publishers
Going Offline
There was life before the Net
The Register MS Has Apparently Shut Down Its Office
It is basically a fake address on the face of it
There Are Also Expectations of IBM Layoffs Very Soon With "Narrative Control."
Some of them mention Red Hat and how IBM failed to achieve anything substantial with that acquisition
After at Least Two Rounds of Mass Layoffs in August Microsoft Said to Have "September Layoff Confirmed - Performance Based"
Those "M5 level meetings" sound plausible
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 25, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, August 25, 2025