01.04.09
Is Microsoft ‘Pulling an EDGI’ on Kerala? (Updated)
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Finally — solid proof of targeted Microsoft dumping against GNU/Linux and Free software
Microsoft turns against the people of Kerala again
ANIVAR Aravind, who led friendly protests in favour of Free software in India, told us last night that “Kerala is moving to Non Free Way again [...] 2 major supporters for Free Software in Govt is Removed by The Govt. (Leaded by Communist Party of India (Marxist).”
This sounded familiar because Microsoft has a track record of tossing people out of their jobs if they don’t serve Microsoft’s agenda [1, 2, 3] and diplomats are not particularly impressed by this behaviour. “Chief Ministers IT advisor and Arun M (Special Officer, ICFOSS & FSF India Secretary) is removed,” tells Anivar.
Anivar also says that “there is a move to Change IT Policy of the state.” They have been trying this for a long time, even with the help of celebrities whom they attempted to hire [1, 2, 3, 4].
People like Anivar are rightly — or leftly — pissed off. “Also see new Reports like this“, he adds.
Anybody visited the www.keralataxes.in[1] for VAT e-filing ? From 1st
of Jan 2009 onwards e-filing of VAT returns is compulsory for all the
dealers in Kerala. Please go through the site and see the
documentation and procedures for e-flining.. Site is developed for
and by the Microsoft Community. Govt has arranged e-filing from
Akshaya Centers for dealers who have no internet facility at “Free Of
Cost” (Thanks to “Microsoft Unlimited Potential Programme”)
This specifically mentions “Microsoft Unlimited Potential Programme” which, to put it simply, is Microsoft’s anti-Linux programme [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. For education, Microsoft has a particular programme called “Education and Government Incentives program” (EDGI) for blocking GNU/Linux adoption. It may be related to those kickback entanglements and the BECTA situation. From the latest antitrust case [PDF], which Microsoft settled very quickly in hopes of hiding new evidence of crime:
From: David Driftmier
Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2002 2:46 PM
To: Anna Aubry; Candace Grisdale
Cc: Christine Bomstead; Kurt Kolb
Subject: RE: “EDGI” Marketing funds
Importance: HighEDGI is a customer-focused program that is for circumstances (like the one you reference) where an education and/or government customer is going to purchase naked PC’S or PC’S w/Linux. IF we do everything possible it still comes down to price differential between the Windows PC’s and Linux PC’s, then we can invest some/all of the royalty revenue from the deal back to the customer in the form of training, services, or even rebates. For more detail see that attached and let me know if you want to chat before your call. Note: This is not a partner program and is MS-internal only.
[...]
…. Original Message ….
From: Candace Grisdale
Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2002 11:20 AM
To: Anna Aubry; Christine Bomstead
Subject: “EDGI” Marketing funds
Importance: HighOkay I have a strange request…There is a situation in Indonesia where one of our OEMs is planning to ship Linux into the channel on some desktops. Do you know about the EDGI program (I think that’s how you spell it) and if an initiative like this one (likely to be government and education accounts receiving the offer)? Sorry if this is totally random but we’ve got an urgency at the executive level within the company about pulling together a Windows marketing program offer. NOTE: there’s a call at 3:30 today so I need to get to the right folks by 2pm today. Any advice I’d welcome.
[...]
From: David Driftmier
Sent: Thursday, August 01,2002 4:27 PM
To: Mark East; Yasushi Iwao; Rafael Perez-Colon; Prasanna Meduri; George Kyriakis
Cc: EDGI HQ Team; Tit Meng Ang; Kurt Kolb; Ed Marcheselli; Sherri Bealkowski; David Driftmier
Subject: EDGI
Importance: High
Attachments: *Microsoft Confidential* : Education and Government Incentives programShortly before MGB, Orlando sent a mail to the GM’s to let them know about an exciting new program to equip the field with a new tool to ensure that we never lose to Linux – the Education and Government Incentives [EDGI] program. We now need to make sure our people in the field understand how and when to leverage this program. Please use the attachments included in the original Orlando email and the into below to communicate with the education people in your region. I am sending this to the regional leads instead of to the broader alias so that you may modify with any regional processes as necessary. Please distribute as quickly as possible, though.
Below is a quick Q&A:
What is EDGI? EDGI (pronounced ‘edgy’) is both a process for responding to large competitive threats and a large source of funding to level the playing field between Windows and Linux when a deal involves the purchase of new PC’s.
Did you say ’funding’?! How much? EDGI does not have a set limit for funding, but is instead limited on a per-deal basis. The maximum amount of funding that can be approved for an individual deal is the total amount of OEM revenue that Microsoft will recognize from the OEM/COEM from which new legal Windows PC’s are purchased.
Readers are smart enough to see what is happening here. The full document is 28 pages long and the text is particularly enlightening, so we append the full text below (OCRed and edited with some typographical errors).
Here is Microsoft talking about “Linux infestation” [PDF] and how to fight this “infestation”. It’s related to the one above (see full text at the bottom for details about CompHot).
From: Peter Wise
Sent: Monday, October 07, 2002 9:43 AM
To: Server Platform Leadership Team
Subject: CompHot Escalation Team Summary – Month of September 2002CompHot Escalation Team Summary – Month of September 2002
Microsoft Confidential
[...]
Observations and Issues
* Linux infestations are being uncovered in many of our large accounts as part of the escalation engagements. People on the escalation team have gone into AXA, Ford, WalMart, the US Army, and other large enterprises, where they’ve helped block one Linux threat, only to have it pop up in other parts of the businesses. At General Electric alone, at least five major pilots have been identified, as well as a new “Center of Excellence for Linux” at GE Capitol.
* Linux on the mainframe continues to be the most common escalation scenario largely because the mainframe is unfamiliar to most of our sales team. Paul Morse of CATM has had a success at AXA, PNC Financial, the State of Pennsylvania and elsewhere in blocking this threat.
[...]
* We have a couple of questions about the 100 $50,000 prizes that will be awarded as part of the MGB Linux contest.
For a company whose "technical evangelists" love to claims that “Linux” is just some insignificant market factor, well… they sure seem pretty terrified of it. Microsoft’s Gerri Elliott, who fought Free software using a hat in government (mentioned in [1, 2, 3]), appears in the correspondence as well. So are Steve Ballmer and Orlando Ayala, who fought GNU/Linux on OLPC and wrote the main document. In emphasis, he writes: “It is essential, therefore, that we use this in only in deals we would lose otherwise” (i.e. when GNU/Linux or Star/OpenOffice win). Later on, with underlined bold face he writes: “under NO circumstances lose against Linux.”
Scroll down to the bottom and see that Kerala is among those which EDGI targeted. █
Update (04/01/2009): We have received additional information about the happenings in Kerala. The CPIM State committee has decided to ask for the resignation of Joseph Mathew, the IT advisor to the Chief Minister (the Party and Joseph are highlighting different reasons for this). But there is also a move against Arun, who had been appointed the special Officer of ICFOSS a few months earlier. He was asked to resign just after Joseph’s resignation, and that is troubling. Arun was the main Organiser of the Free Software Free Society Conference which took place in December.
Some more details appear in in the FSF-Friends mailing list:
http://mm.gnu.org.in/pipermail/fsf-friends/2009-January/006019.html
http://mm.gnu.org.in/pipermail/fsf-friends/2009-January/006021.html
Arun’s E-mail:
http://mm.gnu.org.in/pipermail/fsf-friends/2009-January/006097.html
Friends inside the Party told Anivar that in the party meeting there was criticism against Joseph for a Novell boycott campaign [1, 2, 3, 4] in the Kochi conference (Organised by CPIM Sympathisers), but he does not have any role in it. Neither have us.
Appendix: Comes vs. Microsoft – exhibit px09685, as text
From: Melody O’Tierney Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2002 5:15 PM To: Ken Goetsch’s Direct Reports; Melody O’Tiemey’s Direct Reports Subject: FW: "EDGI" Marketing funds Attachments: EDGI We had a presentation on Edgi (aka Wedgi) at MGB, but this document actually takes you through what it entails. Brian had mentioned a school district that this might be an excellent candidate for -- are there others? Let’s make sure we use this new tool in our tool box if we can make it make sense. .... Original Message .... From: Candace Grisdale Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2002 4:40 PM To: Melody O’Tierney; Ken Goetsch Subject: FW: "EDGI" Marketing funds All you ever wanted to know about EDGI....might be helpful data.... .... Original Message .... From: David Driftmier Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2002 2:46 PM To: Anna Aubry; Candace Grisdale Cc: Christine Bomstead; Kurt Kolb Subject: RE: "EDGI" Marketing funds Importance: High EDGI is a customer-focused program that is for circumstances (like the one you reference) where an education and/or government customer is going to purchase naked PC'S or PC'S w/Linux. IF we do everything possible it still comes down to price differential between the Windows PC’s and Linux PC’s, then we can invest some/all of the royalty revenue from the deal back to the customer in the form of training, services, or even rebates. For more detail see that attached and let me know if you want to chat before your call. Note: This is not a partner program and is MS-internal only. royalty revenue from the deal back to the customer in the form of training, services, or even rebates. For more detail see that attached and let me know if you want to chat before your call. Note: This is not a partner program and is MS-internal only. D .... Original Message .... From: Anna Aubry Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2002 1:40 PM To: Candace Grisdale; David Driftmier Cc: Christine Bomstead Subject: RE: "EDGI" Marketing funds Importance: High Hi Candace- Sorry for the slow response - been in meetings. I’m not familiar with EDGI. David is our Dir of International Operations; maybe he can help? Thanks, Anna MS-CC-RN 000001381445 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
.... Original Message .... From: Candace Grisdale Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2002 11:20 AM To: Anna Aubry; Christine Bomstead Subject: "EDGI" Marketing funds Importance: High Okay I have a strange request...There is a situation in Indonesia where one of our OEMs is planning to ship Linux into the channel on some desktops. Do you know about the EDGI program (I think that’s how you spell it) and if an initiative like this one (likely to be government and education accounts receiving the offer)? Sorry if this is totally random but we’ve got an urgency at the executive level within the company about pulling together a Windows marketing program offer. NOTE: there’s a call at 3:30 today so I need to get to the right folks by 2pm today. Any advice I’d welcome. 8/25/2005 MS-CC-RN 000001381446 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
Page 1 of 3 From: David Driftmier Sent: Thursday, August 01,2002 4:27 PM To: Mark East; Yasushi Iwao; Rafael Perez-Colon; Prasanna Meduri; George Kyriakis Cc: EDGI HQ Team; Tit Meng Ang; Kurt Kolb; Ed Marcheselli; Sherri Bealkowski; David Driftmier Subject: EDGI Importance: High Attachments: *Microsoft Confidential* : Education and Government Incentives program Shortly before MGB, Orlando sent a mail to the GM’s to let them know about an exciting new program to equip the field with a new tool to ensure that we never lose to Linux - the Education and Government Incentives [EDGI] program. We now need to make sure our people in the field understand how and when to leverage this program. Please use the attachments included in the original Orlando email and the into below to communicate with the education people in your region. I am sending this to the regional leads instead of to the broader alias so that you may modify with any regional processes as necessary. Please distribute as quickly as possible, though. Below is a quick Q&A: What is EDGI? EDGI (pronounced 'edgy') is both a process for responding to large competitive threats and a large source of funding to level the playing field between Windows and Linux when a deal involves the purchase of new PC's. Did you say ’funding’?! How much? EDGI does not have a set limit for funding, but is instead limited on a per-deal basis. The maximum amount of funding that can be approved for an individual deal is the total amount of OEM revenue that Microsoft will recognize from the OEM/COEM from which new legal Windows PC’s are purchased. So this is only for deals where new Windows PC’s are purchased from OEM’s or COEM’s? Yes. When should I request funding under the EDGI program? EDGI should only be used when every other attempt to close the business has been exhausted and the customer will be buying naked PC’s with Linux. So how does EDGI level the paying field when it comes to price? Won’t the customer still have to pay for Windows as part of purchasing a Windows-based PC? Yes, the customer will stay pay for Windows as part of the purchase price of the new PC. We can however, use EDGI to re-invest in the customer in the form of training, services, or, in extreme cases, even rebates so that the total cost of the project is the same as if the bought PC’s with Linux and then had to pay for the training and/or services, etc. So I have an account I think may need this program. What do I do? Assuming you have exhausted all tools available to you in your subsidiary, escalate to the regional Education director for your region. They will the work with you to determine how best to win and can bring additional resources to bean as well as the experience of how these deals have been won in other subsidiaries in the region. The regional teams will then escalate to the competitive team in Redmond via the CompHot alias. The CompHot team will immediately 8/25/2005 MS-CC-RN 000001381447 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
Page 2 of 3 involve EdSG and the Windows product group on any EDGI deals. We will then provide funding information II/O codes, etc.) so that money can be transferred or checks cut by local operations centers. This will also provide for a central point of reporting and tracking of these competitive deals. (For those subs who don’t have a regional education lead yet, escalate directly to comphot) Who ultimately approves EDGI funds? The WW Area VP’s (Kevin Johnson, Jean-Philippe Courtois, Michael Rawding). Before EdSG approves the funding, we will make sure VP approval has been obtained. How does this impact the subsidiary financially? What about my quota? We are still working out reporting and accounting issues. At a minimum you can expect the following:
- Review at MYR to ensure the deals ended up being net positive for Microsoft
- Subsidiary (and sales team) should only expect revenue credit for the net impact of the deal. i.e. If we do a deal that generates $500k in COEM Windows Revenue and $500k in MS Office revenue, but we had to invest $250k back into the customer, then the sub would only see $750k total revenue credit. Also the rep responsible for the account should only expect to receive credit for net revenue after the investment. In other words, we still have to meet our revenue targets, so we should only use this if it means that we would not normally have seen the revenue as it would have been lost to Linux or another low-cost competitor. Can I use this money to fund pilots, or other pre-sales activities? EDGI funds are only disbursed after the OEM revenue is recognized. This is not to be used to support pro-sales activities. Pro-sales activities such as pilots, architecture assessments, etc. should be funded through BIF. EDGI is neither a replacement nor an extension of BIF. I cover government accounts, also. Can I use EDGI for those accounts? While it is expected that the majority of EDGI deals will be government-driven education deals, EDGI can be used for government-only deals if appropriate. Is EDGI just for developing countries? What about developed countries? While it is expected that this is a larger issues in countries that have extremely limited resources available, EDGI can be used in both developed as well as developing countries. Should I educate my partners on this? Due to our reluctance to compete with Linux or any other competitor solely on price, this should be treated as Microsoft-internal only. OK, what do I do now? Read the attached email and attachments thoroughly. IF you have an opportunity in the pipeline that you fear will be lost to Linux or other low- cost/no-cost competitor, then escalate appropriately, provided that you have already exhausted every means at your disposal to win the account. IF you have further questions, contact your regional education lead or daviddri. Thanks all, Dave David Driftmier Director, International Operations
Page 3 of 3 Microsoft Education Solutions Group +1 425-705-4113 8/25/2005 MS-CC-RN 000001381449 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
From: Orlando Ayala
Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2002 8:17 AM
To: SMSG Leadership Team; Pat Fox; Kurt Kolb; Sherri Bealkowski; Rogers Weed; Asia Pacific
General Managers; EMEA General Managers; HUSK:icon general managers; Gerri Elliott;
Linda Testa (LCA); Pamela Passman (LCA); Peter Wise
Cc: Steve Ballmer; David Driftmier; Rafael Perez-Colon; Mark East; Jeff Raikes; Jim AIIchin; Chris
Jones (WINDOWS)
Subject: *Microsoft Confidential* : Education and Government Incentives program
Importance: High
Attachments: Final EDGI Slide.ppt; Program Document - Winning Government and Education.doc
As many of you know, the Education Solutions Group [EdSG], and the Windows Client group
team have been leading a cross-group effort involving LCA, OEM, WW Licensing and Pricing,
and SMSG.
The goal of this project is to provide a mechanism for emerging markets to build a rich, active,
legal ecosystem around PC computing, and at the same time, make computers with Microsoft
Windows preinstalled more affordable, especially in the education segment.
We recognize the critical importance of helping emerging markets build healthy and legal PC
ecosystems and clearly the answer is having Windows be a core component. But in today’s
difficult economic environment it is clear that some institutions and countries are making
decisions based on short-term price, rather than long-term cost and benefits of their IT
investments. If is clear that Windows offers far more benefits to an emerging economy and to
the immediate use of customers, we have to do more in emerging markets to help foster a
Windows ecosystem.
Until all the details of the program have been developed, it is important that we have a way
to address large PC purchases that involve low-cost/no-cost competitors in the education
(and government) sectors, especially in emerging markets. Effective immediately, we
are significantly enhancing empowerment by the GM to provide services and, where
necessary’, even dollars back to the customer to offset the cost of buying new OEM PC’s with
*legal* Windows preinstalled instead of naked PC’s with Linux and/or other low-cost/no-cost
software.
Example scenario:
The government of "X" is advocating using open source for all government-funded computers
in order to keep "X" dollars inside the country and save the taxpayers millions of dollars. They
are therefore looking at rolling out 50,000 PC’s with Linux to all their K-I 2 schools and run
StarOffice for free or a locally-produced package that they can purchase for $5/desktop.
After extensive selling by the local MS account team, including the country GM, to convince
them of the higher value, lower TCO, and overall advantages of the Windows-based ecosystem
in their country, the government still maintains that while there might be some premium
attached to our software, it’s not enough fo justify the investment and they will stick with their
plan to go open source across all schools.
8/25/2005
MS-CC-RN 000001381450
HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
In order to compete more effectively against Linux and other providers on these deals, we can now leverage the Education and Government Incentive [EDGI] program to help tip the scales to MS in the deal. After engaging the regional team, the region may use funds to provide services and/or rebates to the customer with the following limitation: Not to exceed the estimated Windows royalties recognized by MS from the OEM selling the PC’s to the customer (in the example, 50,000 PC’s at approx. $100/PC for OEM Windows XP Professional would result in a maximum of $5M for the individual deal). An outline of the sales process is included in the attached program document. While this program is available for both developed and developing countries, initial focus is being given to those areas where economic conditions often dictate low-cost/no-cost software as the only solution. This would include LATAM, Africa, Middle East, South Asia including India and PRC. Ideally, this will still result in a net positive on the Executive P&L as the OEM revenues would not have been realized if the deals had been lost. It is essential, therefore, that we use this in only in deals we would lose otherwise. Initially, we will track each deal, then reevaluate in aggregate at the end of Q1 and again at MYR to validate effectiveness. IF an opportunity meets the criteria in the attached sales process and normal sales process has not been sufficient to close the deal then the GM should ensure that the following takes place: 1) Engage regional team in sales opportunity 2} Escalate to the "comphot" alias for review by the competitive team, EdSG, and the Windows Client group. 3) EdSG will work with Windows Client Group and SMSG WW controller to ensure that funds are tracked and managed appropriately 4) Until appropriate OEM tracking systems are in place, it may be necessary for local account teams to validate appropriate Windows purchases by OEM’s in order to ensure funds invested in customer do not exceed funds actually realized through the channel. Action required: 1) RVP’s should ensure local response teams are designated as per the attached sales process. It is critical that we are really present and actively working in this accounts way before it is too late. We don’t want to be surprised by being "out of the game:" 2) RVP’s should establish an approval process or empowerment guideline for their region 3) GM’s to communicate program to appropriate sales teams in the subs 4) GM’s to ensure regional response teams are engaged on any EDGI opportunities once teams are formed 5) EdSG (daviddri) to track and communicate EDGI account pipeline, work with Windows Client Group (patfox) to validate requests, and report back to results to RVP’s. 6) Bottom line do our best to show the great value of our software to these customers and ensure we get opaid for it under NO circumstances lose against Llnux before ensuring we have used this program actively and in a smart way. We believe for those customers to stay with Windows is in their best long term interest to protect and expand the great value in their investment and also for our long term relationship with this critical segments in your markets. Use this actively as an opportunity to also build great relationships and recognition for our honest desire to partner with them because that is the true intention of the program. As detailed processes are implemented, new, detailed guidance will be published. There will 8/25/2005 MS-CC-RN 000001381451 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
also be additional guidance provided at MGB. Questions may be sent to edgihq. As always, thanks for your efforts in continuing the fight to help countries realize their potential through truly great software! 8/25/2005 MS-CC-RN 000001381452 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
EDGI definition - What EDGI is: - A tool that supports the MS strategy for winning against low-cost/no-cost competitors in the government and government-driven education space - A framework for responding to large (state/country-wide) deals, involving a designated regional team to support the subsidiary, using consistent processes - An effort that is integrated into the overall sales process, utilizing the same tools (e.g. Siebel) and processes. - What EDGI is not: - A tool to help win commercial (non-government accounts) - A complete competitive strategy - A tool for small/breadth opportunities - A new selling methodology - A bottomless source of funding for account managers to close deals! MS-CC-RN 000001381453 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
I Next Steps ¯ -Financial processes to be finalized - Financial accounts have been created - Creation of GM and Subsidiary measurements underway -RVP’s to designate Regional Response Teams -EDGI HQ team to field top issues while regional teams are ramped up -EdSG team to provide pipeline management and reporting of top competitive accounts (Gov’t group will coordinate non-edcuation government deals). This process will be harmonized with the overall competitive deals reporting engine (Peter Wise) - Investment will be reviewed by SLT at end of Q1 and MYR MS-CC-RN 000001381454 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
Winning Government and Education "EDGI" (Education & Government Incentive) Program MS-CC-RN 000001381455 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
Executive Summary
In order to more effectively win in the large education/government deals where we compete against low/no-cost offerings, Microsoft will introduce a predictable and replicable process to engage in and win these deals. A common current scenario is one where a government wants to provide for a common technology platform across all schools in the country/province/state. They are either seriously considering open source due to cost and political pressures or are using Linux and StarOffice or other low/no-cost software as levers to negotiate price with Microsoft. This scenario is closely tied to, but not limited to, the challenges seen in developing countries where economic pressures often force governments to seek low-cost/no-cost solutions (see Appendix for recent examples.) Just as we are focused on delivering end-to-end solutions to our commercial customers, we will endeavor to approach these deals with an end-to-end approach at addressing the underlying needs of the community and/or educational institution.Goals
There are two major goals of the Education and Government Incentive program: - Ensure government and education customers can experience the value of Windows, Office and other Microsoft products ¯ Address affordability, application compatibility, teacher training and curriculum, additional software needs It is important to note that there are two major issues that need to be solved: 1. How to best help developing countries jumpstart the establishment of an effective educational infrastructure that can leverage the benefits of technology 2. How to meet competition and effectively win against the no-cost/low-cost competitor in large government deals. This proposal is squarely aimed at the second issue, although there is considerable overlap between the two. There are deals (primarily large government deals in developed countries) that fall outside of the first issue but are still included in the second. However, the majority of instances where Microsoft finds itself addressing the first issue, it will be addressing the second at the same time. Consequently, providing assistance to developing subs is a subset of the larger problem of responding to the large deals.Assumptions
This proposal is shaped by some underlying assumptions about the business environment: - A completely ’free’ model for education is not desirable for the following reasons: MS-CC-RN 000001381456 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
o Approx. $1B annual revenue stream currently being realized through sales to academic institutions o The current pricing (deeply discounted) helps ensure that a healthy ecosystem exists where MS and its partners continue to innovate and deploy a sales force to work with customers to define and realize the full value of the software. - Customer concessions cannot impact OEM royalties or rely on an OEM delivering "naked" PCs without an OS (i.e. no reduced price full OS offering in academic space) - Many subs do not have sufficient dedicated resources to drive the fully-integrated vertical ISS sales process needed to re-engineer the large customers’ vision of needs - We cannot and will not compete with Linux/StarOffice and other open source providers solely on price, however the price allure of ’free’ must be addressed as part of competitive response, including where necessary matching competitive offers. - Scenarios are not limited to Linux/StarOffice, nor are they limited to developing subs, although these are our current primary areas of urgency - We do not want to develop a standard ’offering’ as this becomes not only our new price point, but also invites large customers to create new tenders which we may not be competitive with on pricePlan
Taxonomy
In order to better analyze the opportunity, the following taxonomy is proposed: - Developed country (e.g. US, Japan, Belgium) These countries typically have per capita GDP’s greater than USD$3,500. - Developing country [Large, High Potential] (e.g. Brazil, India, China, Russia) These countries typically have lower GDP’s (< $3,500 per capita), large populations with the potential to support a considerable IT infrastructure in the next 3-5 years - Developing country [Large, Low Potential] (e.g. Indonesia, Bangladesh). Same as above but with little potential for real IT infrastructure in the near term. - Developing country [Small and Medium] (e.g. Eastern Caribbean, Philippines, Ecuador) Countries with low GDP and potential that is limited by their size. Note: A revenue report is attached in the Appendix that shows countries currently generating revenue and their status according to the taxonomy above.Funding
Since these opportunities are largely tied to specific competitive opportunities, investments will be funded using OEM revenue. MS-CC-RN 000001381457 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
It is also important to note that in many countries, there exist untapped funding sources, especially in developing regions. Close cooperation between business groups and LCA will be needed to identify initiatives and programs from sources such as the World Bank, IDB, IMP, etc that can potentially be used to help fund the community development portion of large government deals.Response
A process will be put in place whereby the following occurs: 1) EdSG will work with LCA to produce a consolidated view of all Microsoft’s efforts in the academic space to ensure that customers understand the value of what we have already provided and can provide in the future. This would include initiatives by EdSG, LCA, MSR University Relations, Recruiting, CDDG, Developer Evangelism, Product Marketing Group, etc. 2) Empowerment guidelines for subsidiary and regional pricing in education will be put in place, similar to those in force in the Enterprise segment 3) When local management determines that local empowerment will not provide the flexibility needed to win a deal, they will escalate to a regional response team. An example of potential members of the regional response team: - Regional Education Director (or Government Director in the case of a non- Education deal) - Regional Linux Competitive lead / Product Management - Regional WWLP resource - Regional LCA 4) The regional response team will engage with the local account team and the customer to provide a full-integrated solutions sales effort, in order to re-engineer what the customer sees as their needs so that they can understand how the MS platform will uniquely address their needs. 4) If necessary, the regional response team will escalate to the corporate competitive team via the comphot alias. The competitive team will involve the EDGI HQ team in any deals that fit within the parameters of the EDGI program. 6) If needed, the EDGI HQ team will work with the regional team to provide additional value-add services and/or products in order to balance the investment the customer is making in the software (when obtained through OEM PC’ s) with RVP approval. When offering the customer services or training, you should give the customer the choice of Microsoft services or training or Microsoft will pay for equivalent services or training from another vendor. Services and products may include: - Integration services - Application Migration MS-CC-RN 000001381458 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
- Training - Curriculum content - ... 7) New PC sales will be made as usual from OEMs to entity, though we may add some requirements on the OEMs as pre-requisite for participation in the program (i.e., meet certain system specs for education, or meet education specific training or channel needs) 8) Below is a flow-chart of the competitive selling process in the education vertical, using the empowerment guidelines and this process. The Give List represents customer offerings that Microsoft can bring to the table in closing a deal. The following is a prioritized list of ’gives’ beyond our normal discounted licensing programs: - Training/Skills Development o Innovative Teachers o IT Academy’ o Project Access - Services Offerings o MCS and Partners o Premier o University support model - Additional solutions: o Blackboard o Microsoft Class Server - Financial o Creative funding models (e. g. foundation model) o Software donations o Discounts o Direct customer investment MS-CC-RN 000001381459 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
There are several benefits to this program. First and foremost, it will enable more customers to obtain the benefit of using our technology. Additionally, the following are expected benefits of the proposal: - Increase our win percentage against competition - Improve our partnership with governments - Improve Microsoft image - Protect our product price points by removing discounts below empowerment guidelines - Have a process that is reactive, but predictable and controllable - Ensure optimum use of resources (current one-off negotiations resource-intensive and painful) - Centrally track use of resources enabling us to match both with business value received, instead of suffering hard-to-track revenue erosion due to one-off discounts.Donations
It is recognized that there will still be a significant portion of these deals where software donations may be appropriate as part of the overall offering. The intention is not to limit a subsidiary’s ability to do this, but to work cooperatively with LCA to insure the customer and Microsoft both receive the full benefit of the donation and that the donation MS-CC-RN 000001381460 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
is part of a larger partnership with the customer and partners to create a self-sustaining infrastructure. This will also help us track and recognize the investment we are making world-wide.Community Affairs
Community Affairs will continue to play a key role in large education and government deals, especially in the developing countries. LCA has committed to working with the business to define a set of offerings that will provide end-to-end community development approaches and are responsible for the related economic development issues. These offerings may be tactical in nature and can be used as a component in a large negotiation, or may be a proactive and comprehensive plan that we offer to those countries in greatest need. It is important that we recognize the role of timing in providing community affairs leadership. Presenting community development initiatives at the same time as a response to a large deal can often be viewed negatively by our customers. It is critical!, therefore, that GM’s ensure that long-range community affairs approaches are synchronized with the business needs in the sub. This may also mean that we make community development offers that are not contingent upon the customer making related purchase commitments. An exception would be deals where we decide to donate a portion of the licenses being purchased in lieu of discounting the overall price, thereby preserving our unit price point and delivering the same overall cost to the customer. The proposed investment funds are therefore not targeted at community development, but at ensuring that we can address and if necessary match a lower competing offer from low-cost/no-cost competitors. If there are needs for broader free programs, these should still be identified by the sub leadership and addressed with their LCA teams. MS-CC-RN 000001381461 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
Appendix
Recent Deals
- BRIC Project - China education PCs - Czech (School Internet Project) - 25,000 PCs - Saudi Arabia (King Abdul Aziz Univ) - 4,500 PCs - Saudi Arabia (President’s Girls School) - 25,000 PCs - South Africa (Learning Bridge - education) - country-wide; EMEA proposal for all low-GDP countries - Pakistan - 50,000 PCs - Other MENA (academic, east med) - 64,000 (?) PCs - US K-12 Access Device - up to 1MM laptops - Michigan (K-12) - $10MM state program funded - Colombia government - 200K PCs over 3 yearsAnatomy of a Deal
Name: Girls Schools in Saudi Arabia Desktops: 20,000 (1200+ servers) Revenue: $4MM (50% OEM) Competitor Linux/StarOffice Product Mix: Windows2000 Server, Windows 2000/XP Pro, Office XP Pro, Front Page 2002, VB 6.0 Microsoft Investments to win: - Create special package including media and guidance - Highlight customer accomplishments (shared PR) - Commitment to invest in E-Ministry ($450,000) o SE and two admin for a year (Contingent Staff) o Train 220 FTE’s on Office Tools o Initial implementation services o Minimal application development Story: The local team created a special 3 CD kit that included CD’s for Tools, Teachers, and Students with appropriate content and products They also agreed to fund a special ministry of education training pilot. This investment ($450k) was funded through the additional margin on the per desktop price. Name: Hungary Higher Education Desktops: 235,000 students, 18,000 teachers Revenue: $2.2M over 3 years Competitor: Linux/IBM Product Mix: Windows XP, Office XP, Front Page, Visual Studio, BackOffice CAL MS-CC-RN 000001381462 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
Microsoft Investments to win: 66% discount = $4.4MM off of normal Campus Agreement pricing Story: In this deal, the total amount of the deal represented the maximum amount of money that the customer had to spend. If we did not do the deal for this price, then IBM was ready to execute. As a higher ed customer, there was requisite technical knowledge to support a successful implementation, so additional services were not imperative. The sub also had a successful evangelism and knowledge transfer program in place with the technical universities. MS-CC-RN 000001381463 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
Linux Account Wins/Threats/Losses Account Country Date No. of PCs Industry Linux Ddvers Reasons: Win/Loss Wins Proven better TCO vs Vassa Finland Gov’t Finland 11/1/2001 ? Pubhc Sector I ! TCO, Standard=zat~on current environment and L~nux. Proven better TCO vs Lappeenranta Finland Gov’t Finland 11/1/2001 ? Public Sector TCO, Standardization current environment and Linux. Losses Account Name Country Customer No. of PCs Industry Reasons for Loss Other reasons for Segment Loss Corporate Express Australia MORG 400 Services Cost Dept of Education Northern Territory Austraha Academic 10,000 Public Sector Cost Beijing Local Govt. China Major 2,000 Public Sector Govt Endorsement Central Excise & Customs India Major 900 Public Sector Cost Tata Institute of Fundamental Research India Academic 300 Education Anti-MS Govemment Procurement Agency Korea Corporate 1,000 Public Sector Govt Endorsement Department of General Education Thailand MORG 1,500 Public Sector Cost University Systems Thailand Major 1,000 Public Sector Performance Department of Local Administration Thailand MORG 3,000 Public Sector Govt Endorsement Columbia Sportswear US MORG 182 Public Sector Cost HS-CC-RN 000001381464 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
Advantage Sales & 8,000 Pubhc Sector Cost MS- D~sastisfaction Marketing US ~astertrade New Zealand MORG 400 Manufacturing Cost HNVVendor Kachingo New Zealand MORG 800 Retail & Hospitality Recommend Southern Cross New Zealand Corporate 300 Health Care Cost Coffee Bean & Tea Singapore SORG 20 Retail & Hospitality Cost Leaf Total: 29,802 Threats Customer Other reasons for Account Name Country No of PCs Vertical Industry Reasons for threat Segment Threat Department of Defence Australia Corporate 40,000 Public Sector Cost Department of Australia Academic 52,000 Education Cost Lmux/StarOffice Education of WA Department of Health Australia Corporate 11,000 Public Sector Cost StarOffice WA Catholic Education Australia Academic 2,265 Education Cost Linux / StarOffice Office of WA Association of Independent Schools of Australm Academic 2,460 Educabon Cost StarOftice WA Sun offeringDept of Education Australia Academic 45,000 Education Other (Please specify) partnership with the Western Australia dept to develop their vision 29 of 39 Universities in Australia Academic 60,000 Education Cost Australia MS-CC-RN 000001381465 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
Political statement that says the dept will Dept of Education - supply every student Australia 25,000 Education Govt Endorsement South Aust with a SSNVord Processor and database. Belgian Ministry of Pubhc Sector Finance Belgium Major 28,000 Cost Brazil Gov’t Brazil Major 220,000 Public Sector Cost Alcadia Mayor Venezuela 38,000 Education Cost ANEP - K12 Uruguay 11,000 Education Cost BED Columbia 8,500 Education Cost Ministry of Education Chile 100,000 Education Cost Think corn Linux and Redoffice( StarOffice China Govt of He Nan China Other 10,000 Public Sector Other (Please specify) Partner) will offer source code to them all China gov in China BORG 1,000,000 Public Sector Govt Endorsement provices Lower Saxony-Choose from Major 13,500 Public Sector Cost Germany List They are testing out toStock Exchange Hong Kong Major 1,300 Public Sector Other (Please specify) use Linux as the dumb terminal Hong Kong Hong Kong Strategic 80,000 Pubhc Sector Govt Endorsement Government Pdmary and Secondary Hong Kong Academic Education Schools 3,600 Cost PicoWodd Hong Kong MORG 200 Public Sector Cost Ministry of Urban India Corporate 400 Pubhc Sector Development Govt. of Goa India Academic 800 Education Cost MIT India Major 6,000 Public Sector Cost Haryana Govt. India Academic 2,000 Education Cost MS-CC-RN 000001381466 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
Ministry of Surface
India Pubhc Sector
Transport
Ministry of Finance India Major 4,000 Public Sector
Ministry of HRD India Major 8,000 Public Sector
Govt. of TN India Major 1,000 Pubhc Sector
Govt. of Maharashtra India Academic 10,000 Education
Govt. of Karnataka India Academic 10,000 Education Other (Please specify) Staroffice (AE)
Govt. of Kerala India Academic 4,500 Education Other (Please specify) Staroffice (AF_)
Govt. of Gujarat India Academic 5,000 Education
Govt. of West Bengal India Academic 5,000 Education
Govt. ofUtl.ar Pradesh India Academic 5,000 Education
Govt. of Dehli India Academic 5,000 Education
Govt. of Tamilnadu India Academic 30,000 Education
Punjab India Academic 200 Education
Rajasthan India Academic 1,000 Education
Uttaranchal India Academic 2,000 Education
Andhra Pradesh India Academic 10,000 Education
Madhya Pradesh India Academic 2,500 Education
Chattisgarh India Academic 5,000 F,ducation
Ministry of Defence India Other 500 Unknown Security Linux / Sta~Office
iFlex India Corporate 500 Financial Services Cost StarOffice
Planetasla India Corporate 200 Services Cost StarOffice
IDBI Bank India Corporate 500 Financial Services Cost Linux/StarOffice
Adani Group India Corporate 200 Manufac{udng Cost Linux/StaK:)ffice
Hiranandani Group India Corporate 300 Unknown Cost Linux/StarOffice
Zandu Pharma India MORG 150 Health Care Cost Linux/StarOffice
Nimbus
India MORG 150 Services Cost StarOffice
Communications
Ace Hardware Indonesia Corporate 1,000 Retail & Hospitality Cost
Department of Finance Indonesia Major 1,000 Public Sector Cost
Department of Internal Indonesia
Major 2,000 Public Sector Cost
Affair
MS-CC-RN 000001381467
HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
Department of Transportation indonesia 1,500 Public Sector Cost Bank of Ireland Ireland MORG 10,000 Public Sector Cost Ministry of Education and 8,500 schools Malaysm Academic 120,000 Education Govt Endorsement Ministry of Finance Treasury Malaysia Corporate 600 Public Sector Govt Endorsement Hgng Leong Finance Malaysia Corporate 800 Financial Services Other (Please Specify) ISPF Destop Financing Scheme Malaysia Other Public Sector Cost Holland Railconsult Netherlands Major Public Sector Cost NZ Government (G2000 ’all of govt’ agreement) New Zealand Corporate 20,000 Public Sector Cost StarOffice Urban Redevelopment Autority Singapore Corporate 600 Publ~cSector Govt Endorsement National Library Board Singapore Corporate 900 Public Sector Govt Endorsement SMRT Singapore Corporate 3,000 Public Sector Govt Endorsement MINDEF Singapore Major 22,000 Public Sector Govt Endorsement iDA- HQ Singapore Corporate 40,000 Public Sector Govt Endorsement Singtel S~ngapore Corporate 15,000 Telecommunications Govt Endorsement ITRI Taiwan Major 6,000 Public Sector Cost Bangkok Metropolitan Administration Thailand Major 7,000 Public Sector Cost Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand Thailand Major 3,000 Public Sector Strong EnterpriseOther (Please specify) Training MIMOS Thailand Corporate 600 Public Sector Other (Please specify) closing digital divide positioning Bank of Ayudhaya Thailand Corporate 400 Financial Services Cost Safeway US LORG 23,000 Public Sector Cost Advant~st Healthcare US MORG 50,000 Public Sector Cost Goldman Sachs US MORG 1,000 Pubtic Sector Cost Eckerd US MORG 24,000 Public Sector Cost MS-CC-RN 000001381468 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
CSKAuto US 12,650 Public Sector Cost General Motors US LORG 15,000 Public Sector Cost CVS US MORG 12,300 Public Sector Anti-MS Southern Methodist Education Univ. US Academic 200 Cost Anti-MS StarOffice deplo~/ed She[win-Williams US MORG 7,500 Retail & Hospitality Cost Unix Migration BMC SOlhNare US Other 8,500 Services Other (Please specify) Think L~nux is cool Dallas School Distdct US Academic 4,000 Education Cost SlarOf~ce deployed Total: 2,285,275 MS-CC-RN 000001381469 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
WW Education Revenue Report - Revenue Shown in As Billed View YTD J ~ =: % of Total WW Sales ~: Growth Edu % of Total Region Location Y-rD Apr 01 YTD Apr 02 % Revenue Sub Revenue Japan Japan 81,749,088 97,143,650 19% 12.1% 6% Japan Total 81,749,088 97,143,660 t9% 12.1% 6% Asia Pacific Australia 15,106,731 21,204,6!3 40% 2.6% 9% Hong Kong 10,527,979 8,267,253 -21% 1.0% 10% Korea 14,238,717 16,372,635 15% 2.0% 10% Taiwan 8,502,050 7,571,206 -11% 0.9% 9% China y y y 1,217,014 2,416,230 99% 0.3% 3% New Zealand 3,341,284 4,346,072 30% 0.5% 10% India SC y y y 4,329,125 3,853,311 -11% 0.5% 4% Malaysia y 4,728,483 3,334,464 -29% 0.4% 8% Philippines y y 1,088,315 1,729,083 69% 0.2% 10% Singapore 5,039,823 5,734,554 14% 0.7% 11% Thailand y y 382,519 524,414 37% 0.1% 2% Indonesia y y 126,715 177,300 40% 0.0% 1% Vietnam y y 22,013 46,631 tt2% 0.0% 1% Asia Pacific Total 68,650,769 75,577,766 10% 9.4% 8% EMEA United Kingdom 66,054,918 76,142,986 15% 9.5% 8% Germany 23,965,508 30,600,645 28% 3.8% 4% France 23,247,045 22,970,375 -1% 2.9% 5% Italy 10,470,680 10,466,659 0% 1.3% 4% Sweden 9,042,520 9,167,473 1% 1.1 % 5% Spa~n 7,518,684 7,591,318 1% 0.9% 6% Denmark 6,387,096 6,670,505 4% 0.8% 5% Belgium 5,845,661 4,620,865 -21% 0.6% 4% Finland 5,821,034 6,659,865 14% 0.8% 8% Norway 4,080,113 5,049,246 24% 0.6% 6% Russia y y y 1,608,526 5,755,319 258% 0.7% 14% Poland y 4,929,483 2,456,965 -50% 0.3% 3% MS-CC-RN 000001381470 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
Switzerland 3,772,464 4,634,758 23% 0.6% 2% Israel 3,312,443 2,956,033 -1 t % 0.4% 5% Turkey y y 2,266,102 3,261,813 44% 0.4% 6% South Africa y 2,238,501 2,629,929 17% 0.3% 3% Ireland 2,207,607 3,579,558 62% 0.4% 9% Portugal 2,241,635 3,209,184 43% 0.4% 6% Austria 2,548,052 3,954,086 55% 0.5% 3% Saudi Arabia 1,541,516 3,028,268 96% 0.4% 10% Greece 2,510,254 3,343,376 ;33% 0.4% 13% Netherlands 2,668,312 7,420,838 178% 0.9% 3% Czech Republic 1,686,670 2,119,862 26% 0.3% 5% Egypt y y t ,300,962 1,653,856 27% 0.2% 9% Lebanon y 2,610,719 704,729 -73% 0.1% 4% Hungary y 1,442,131 3,975,372 176% 0.5% 11 Morocco y 857,446 1,676,623 96% 0.2% 14% UAE ? 947,867 1,286,666 ;36% 0 2% 7% Baltics y 816,027 721 ,I 70 -12% 0.1% 6% Kuwait 837,731 1,187,363 42% 0.1% 8% Indian Ocean Islands y 382,296 408,958 7% 0.1% 9% Romania y 282,830 577,173 104% 0.1% 5% Oman ? 252,142 385,674 53% 0.0% 4% Slovakia y 115,896 287,282 148% 0.0% 3% Ivory Coast y 196,234 118,970 -39% 0.0% 3% Croatia y 194,339 85,053 -56 % 0.0% 1% Tunisia y 240,338 227,192 -5 % 0.0% 16% Namib~a y 133,899 84,614 -52% 0.0% 2% Slovenia 111,060 190,060 71% 0.0% 1 Kenya y 50,990 277,228 444% 0.0% 9% Bulgaria y 37,504 24,051 -36% 0.0% 1% Zimbabwe y 63,692 121,242 90% 0.0% 4% EMEA Nigeda y y 2,046 16,909 726% 0.0% 0% Total 206,1]40,97t 242,280,t10 17% 30.2% Americas United States HQ 259,9~,023 328,841,591 27% 41.0% 6% Canada 17,782,467 22,137,247 24% 2.8% 5% Mexico y y y 11,763,053 13,089,464 11% 1.6% 11 MS-CC-RN 000001381471 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
Brazil y y y 8,099,938 8,414,211 4% 1.0% Colombia y 3,209,920 3,406,378 6% 0.4% 11% Caribbean y 3,677,975 3,170,374 -14% 0.4% 7% Chile y 1,1 41,984 907,500 -21% 0.1% 5% Central America y 1,468,5I 8 1,979,634 36% 0.2% 6% Peru y 1,227,054 1,249,111 2% 0.2% 10% Uruguay y 556,675 791,212 42% 0.1% 7% Argentina y 1,463,612 892,338 -39% 0 1% 3% Venezuela y 791,735 992,855 26% 0.1% 4% Ecuador Caribbean & CA HQ y 240,186 513,335 114% N/A 0 1% 0.0% 8% 0% Americas Total Grand Total Updated 5/2/2002 311,369,141 386,385,266 668,609,969 801,386,795 Small Developing Subs Large Developing Subs (low) Large Developing Subs (high) Total from Developing Subs 24% 20% 48.2% 100.0% 3.9% 0.9% 4.2% 9.1% 6% MS-CC-RN 000001381472 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
Content is available under CC-BY-SA
Kannan said,
January 4, 2009 at 12:29 pm
hi,
What Anivar says is clearly false. People like Arun are shown the door because of a power struggle with in CPIM ( the ruling party). Anivar and
Arun are partners in prospering free software business mostly from goverment contracts. These guys recently organised a free software conference in Kerala. Several blogger’s pointed out that the conference used non-free software. Look at http://brainstorms.in/?p=240 and http://www.kenneyjacob.com/2008/12/12/fsfsin-and-free-software-nonsense/
These guys preach free software and practice M$. I think M$ is not even aware of such guys. They make wild accusations when they loose their chairs.
Kannan said,
January 4, 2009 at 12:30 pm
hi,
What Anivar says is clearly false. People like Arun are shown the door because of a power struggle with in CPIM ( the ruling party). Anivar and Arun are partners in prospering free software business mostly from government contracts. These guys recently organized a free software conference in Kerala. Several blogger’s pointed out that the conference used non-free software. Look at http://brainstorms.in/?p=240 and http://www.kenneyjacob.com/2008/12/12/fsfsin-and-free-software-nonsense/ .
These guys preach free software and practice M$. I think M$ is not even aware of such guys. They make wild accusations when they loose their chairs.
Russian Hacker said,
January 4, 2009 at 2:02 pm
@ Kannan
I fell from my chair laughing at those pictures.
These guys are the dumbest shitheads who are doing so called “movement” without knowing what they’re doing it for!
And this Roy Schestowitz is under the impression that his site is doing miracles in an Indian state.
Man the world is funny!
twitter said,
January 4, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Wow, nice work, Roy. The EDGI program is probably another good reason M$ profits are down. They can’t bribe the whole world and efforts to hide the obvious benefits of free software are doomed to repeated “infestations” as others in the same organization reach the same conclusions.
Roy Schestowitz said,
January 4, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Hey, “Russian Hacker”,
How’s the weather there in India? (airtelbroadband.in)
Jose_X said,
January 4, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Kennan and “Russian Hacker” in India:
What’s up? I followed the links and got nothing shocking or suggestive of a propensity for complete lying. What I found was that some dude made a “crap” javafx presentation which was likely put together with MSware and some small vendor alleges he was not able to get a booth (doesn’t talk about the process he undertook.. maybe he missed a deadline or got there late.. or is lying).
>> I think M$ is not even aware of such guys.
>> And this Roy Schestowitz is under the impression that his site is doing miracles in an Indian state.
You guys should try out for a job working for a Microsoft partner or for Microsoft itself. [Do either of you already have such ties?]
If Microsoft were ignoring Linux in India (that’s not what the docs say), they would be foolish.
Not sure Roy claims to be doing miracles. Not sure what religion Roy practices..
suresh said,
January 5, 2009 at 5:54 am
What Mr. Kannan ‘discovered’ is a peace of shit. CPM has a well-centralized setup to see that people they dislike don’t make to such positions.
M$ has the clout to lure even the top communists(party members, ie ).
Boy, you know about what M$ is aware of. That’s it.
Roy Schestowitz said,
January 5, 2009 at 6:00 am
Microsoft and communism are not as distant as people are led to believe.
A. Mani said,
January 5, 2009 at 7:19 am
‘Edgy’ is very separate from the so-called ‘ouster’. Actually their responsibilities were modified. Some other controversies regarding their partisan role is also known. The ‘Edgy’ part is well known to some CPI(M) leaders at least. These were discussed in the recent FOSS convention in Kolkata.
It is also true that some ‘FOSS activists’ with strong business interests act in an non inclusive way. ..and mutual tussles are but natural.
FOSS can never be compatible with capitalism.
Roy Bixler said,
January 5, 2009 at 8:21 am
You have to look no further than Microsoft’s concept of a software “ecosystem” centered around them. They want to define the market for software to their own best advantage and only allow 3rd parties to succeed in specialty markets. It’s like the Soviet “5-year plans” where the Party decides who produces what.
A. Mani said,
January 5, 2009 at 5:02 pm
It is nowhere near communism or the Soviet variant. The party often decided from below rather than from above. Again implementation was different, it would be the local conditions that would determine most of the directions. The Soviet concept of division of labour was again unique… neither capitalistic or properly communist.
Microsoft is just a monopoly capitalist group for the interests of a few. Not very different from other MNCs. Among them, they are more evil from the market point of view.
darryl said,
January 5, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Its called the free market, governments and industry have “FREEDOM” to choose from the market,
thats why its called a free market, its called competition.
You can either join it or whine about it, but its what you have, and there are not many or any good alternatives.
if your product is of hight enough quality and has a strong enough support structure, (doubtfull for linux), then you have a fighting chance.
Remember UNIX (what linux is a knockoff of) used the be the monolopy and IBM used to be the closed and proprietry system and code. !!
UNIX used to rule the world for OS’s now *Nix is bouncing off the bottom of the OS list.
We have a freedom you so desire, thats the freedom of choice, seems like most of the world have made that choice. and are happy with it.
Roy Schestowitz said,
January 5, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Freedom to choose is not freedom. People are ‘free’ to murder other people, but it does not make such an atmosphere ethical (nor is it legal).
No, it’s called dumping and it’s targeted suffocation of competition. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_pricing
The organisations and nations listed in Microsoft’s ‘hit list’ obviously beg to differ.
Dumping is not a support structure, it’s an offence; Microsoft has few high-quality products and Windows is not one of them.
UNIX has nothing to do with it.
Some people have said that you are likely a Microsoft TE. Is this true, darryl at hotmail.com?
darryl said,
January 5, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Im not a MS anything, im an indepent retired systems engineer, i used to run my own business, but i retired at 44, wanted to retire at 30 but got carried away.
Dumping, what is it when you “SELL” a product for ZERO cost, i would call that dumping.
As far as quality goes, Linux/FOSS has a LONG way to go in terms of quality, why do you think 90% of the world are willing to PAY for a product when there is a cheaper for free alternative ?
A. Because they have the fredom to choose what that want, if FOSS/Linux does what they want they can choose it, if OS x does what they want again they (we) have that freedom.
People are FREE to buy a car that is a POS for low $$$ or pay good money for good quality. The FREE and OPEN market is based on peoples choice.
WE have that choice, and the vast majority of people have made that choice, and that choice which they are FREE to take happens to be ~90% for MS prodcuts and ~2% for the “FREE” alternative.
So if your product is SO good and SO cheap, why are you not the 90% guys, and MS the 2% guys ?
In the past i was 100% linux only, when Win95/98 was crap, but that was over 10 years ago now, MS fixed the hopeless memory manager problem that would not let you more more thatn 512 meg on a Win box but Linux would. I used RH alot.
I also worked as a Linux/VMS/MS consultant, i know what im doing and i know what linux is, and i know how it came about.
Linux as you well know is a re-write of UNIX, ie, its a copy of someone elses idea’s. Its NOT a clean room design of an OS, its a knockoff of UNIX, (your know that OS written in the 1970′s some 40+ years ago)
People are willing to pay for quality, people know what they want and contrary to your opinion most know what they are talking about, a great deal of people know about linux, have seen it, even tried it, and they have gone back to MS products.
you (FOSS/Linux) dont have the quality base that MS has, far from it, your code is not that well written, you’re politices and attitudes are not conducive to cooporations.
MS is far from perfect, but at least they have written and re-written their OS, and not been locked into POSIX/UNIX and anchient OS’s design.
FOSS/Linux is using the oldest politician’s trick, “IF you dont have a good platform or something good to offer, bag out the opposition”
My goal in writing this is to try to get some of the FOSS community to see that fact, and change their ways, go back to providing quality and your find people will flock to you and your product will take off.
So far, in the past 17 years of FOSS, you’ve basically gone nowhere,
I would just love to see the quality of FOSS on par with MS, my dream (I have a dream) to see Linux pushing MS forcing each other to compete in terms of quality.
Forcing them and yourself to product better and better quality to compete for market share. As it stands now, MS has no rivals, they are not threatened by anyone and they can do what they like.
Make FOSS better and compete in terms of quality FFS… before it’s too late, if its not allready.
Lars said,
January 5, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Well, I belive more and more customers will understand that Microsoft software is crap even as of no charge.
Roy Bixler said,
January 5, 2009 at 8:14 pm
The point is that they are a monopoly operating system provider and they have control over the “ecosystem” around their operating system. If a developer is Windows-only, they can reward that developer with preferential access to Windows APIs. On the other hand, if a developer wants to increase their reach and make a platform-agnostic system, Microsoft can punish them and withhold access to their APIs or integrate their functionality into the operating system (see Netscape.) They can reward hardware vendors for their marketing help with a lower price for Windows and vice-versa for those that are “uncooperative” (i.e. they offer Linux.) This command economy is more akin to a communist economy than it is to a free market economy.
Of course. The fact that they are a monopoly is because the laws work too slowly or too ineffectively. It’s an irony that effective anti-trust enforcement is necessary in order to preserve the free market which almost everyone believes to be desirable.
Roy Schestowitz said,
January 5, 2009 at 8:19 pm
This need for regulation was realised early on, just after putting in place the ‘free’ market, which conservatives protested against, calling it “communism”. True story.
Roy Bixler said,
January 5, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Yes, that would be a good outcome. Can Microsoft do the same thing? I would hope that the answer is “yes”. The fact is that they haven’t been competing in terms of quality for many years, as shown by numerous exhibits from the US vs. Microsoft case or the Comes vs. Microsoft case.
darryl said,
January 6, 2009 at 9:23 am
“A monopoly is an enterprise that is the only seller of a good or service. In the absence of government intervention, a monopoly is free to set any price it chooses and will usually set the price that yields the largest possible profit. Just being a monopoly need not make an enterprise more profitable than other enterprises that face competition: the market may be so small that it barely supports one enterprise. But if the monopoly is in fact more profitable than competitive enterprises, economists expect that other entrepreneurs will enter the business to capture some of the higher returns. If enough rivals enter, their competition will drive prices down and eliminate monopoly power.”
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Monopoly.html
Please explain if you will with the presence of OS x, Linux, UNIX, VMS, BSD and so on includig FOSS, and the many “Distro’s” of Linux.
That Microsoft can be considered a monopoly. ???
There were operating systems and applications before Windows and MS, just as there are operating systems and applications NOW along with MS.
Users have a freedom to choose what they like.
______________
The very fact that FOSS seem to believe the quality of their products is at the same quality standards as they perceive Microsofts to be shows that there is a “head in the sand” attitude.
Sure today’s FOSS/Linux might be better than say Win95, but as for office productivity, powerpoint, project and the vast number of free software for windows of high quality. Far exceeds that of FOSS/Linux.
Today’s windows apps and OS has a quality feel about it, updates are regular and contrary to FOSS’s believe its stable and can be easily secured.
90% of commerce and industry use it, often for secure and mission critical applications, with minimal problems.
but a monopoly it is not, and i would like MS to compete more in terms of quality and function, but there is no one of comparable quality to “push” the state of the art.
Thats because FOSS/Linux seem to think they have reached to point of perfection, and are unwilling to see that there is massive room for improvement in the FOSS/Linux world.
__________________
Ive looked at the code for both Linux and Windows (NT) and used both codes bases ALOT, ive been in the computer industry for over 30 years.
I write software and know C code well.
Ive studied Linux and Windows Source code and i can tell you now MS code is not poor quality, its well written and its written under a quality assurance system.
But instead of working to improve your FOSS/Linux product, you whine about the rest, try to pull everyone down to your level and refuse to see how damaging that is to the linux community.
The amount of effort to create a site like this would be better spent making your product better and mabey more people would use it.
Roy Bixler said,
January 6, 2009 at 10:08 am
Your arguments have been tried in court and they have failed. You can’t avoid the fact that Microsoft has been convicted of anti-trust violations multiple continents. This means that Microsoft has been legally found to have sufficient market power to be declared as a monopoly. They have also been found to have used that market power illegally in order to perpetuate their monopoly. I would like nothing more than that Microsoft would compete fairly, legally and on the merits of their products.
Roy Schestowitz said,
January 6, 2009 at 10:11 am
Seeing that “darryl” has been a troublemaker (read: troll) in LinuxToday for a long time, I reckon that it would be more effective not to feed it.
Peter said,
January 6, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Regarding software and analogies with economic systems:
Proprietary software most closely resembles mercantilism (restrictions on trade to support monopolies).
Free Software most closely resembles capitalism (free markets around the freedom for commercial use).
As far as I’m aware, I don’t know of any software that closely resembles communism though semi-free software has hints of it due to its restrictions on commercial use. This was the case with the original Linux kernel license until Torvalds was enlightened with the GPL.
Gene Cavanaugh said,
January 6, 2009 at 11:42 pm
I think we are missing some points:
M$ has been around a long time, while Linux is new. M$ has a ton of money, linux is mostly volunteer.
Even so, Linux is a very viable competitor, and gaining market share steadily. I use both, but recently I have been using Linux almost exclusively; it is a better OS (though it does require knowing a bit about computers, the thing M$ does not require).
That is M$’s ultimate downfall, I think; the younger generation is not afraid of computers, so M$ has much less appeal to them. Even so, if people want M$, more power to them.
We do need to stop the abuse of the competitive system M$ is guilty of. I am becoming very active (with some success already) in convincing our government of that. I have faith that America will eventually do to M$ what was done to AT&T, and with a considerable advance in innovation as a result, as was true of the AT&T breakup.
Kannan said,
January 7, 2009 at 12:22 pm
See how kerala guys teach FOSS. They are getting advanced.:D
Look at http://brainstorms.in/?p=245
The now ousted IT adviser is some one who is on the board of CATFOSS.
Roy Schestowitz said,
January 7, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Good spot there about “open source”.
Arthur Marsh said,
January 8, 2009 at 12:47 am
Good post, and thanks for OCR’ing that PDF. Worth knowing how much Microsoft has attempted to manipulate the Australian markets.
AstaLaVISTAbaby said,
January 13, 2009 at 9:18 am
Schools are not corporate IT training courses where technical material is to be taught and degrees awarded. Schools are meant to make citizens out of children. That is a legally stated aim of schools and a written duty that no school can shy away from.
If you’ve listened to RMS’ speech or if you have been asked by a friend for a copy of MS Windows/MS Office that you have purchased because he needed to do a college submission because his teacher only wanted a Word document, then, you would know what I’m talking of.
Sharing code to help your friend makes your act “illegal”. It is a moral dilemma which clearly no constitution must allow to be forced on its citizens. And yet it does. It encourages going against your freedom of expression in a sense – you can’t talk if you don’t send a Word document.
Have you seen the scene in the Matrix when Neo asks – “give me my phone call” and the Agent says – “what use is your phone call of you cannot speak? ”
That is exactly what making Microsoft formats compulsory means.
That is straight constitutional stuff, maybe the US constitution is a corporate memo, not here in India. we know how to draft better constitutions and sometimes implement them better too.
Also, unfortunately for businesses, they do not operate in a vacuum, they work in real markets in real countries with real citizens.
Such a license (as MS EULA) should be outlawed in the first place.
Also, either company X adhere to open document formats or get the hell out of the software business.
Consider this hypothetical law for example:
“You must write a legal document on Armani(TM) cloth using Coke(TM) stains ONLY. ”
That is what an MS Word document “requirement” boils down to, which is so common in Government offices.
And Microsoft just standardised a binary, proprietary, closed format through the ISO process!
They committed their biggest mistake EVER.
Shot themselves in the foot, in style, with no scope for rollback.
It’s an ISO standard lie!
Also, they bribe officials in many countries.
If all those bribes are unearthed, they could stand guilty of subverting the legal process and similar other serious crimes, because they’ve also lobbied that lawyers and legal documents be used in their formats.
Not just corporate frauds, not just ordinary corruption, but playing with the security of the country as in the case of the spy Rabinder Singh of the Research and Analysis Wing, who fled to the US after stealing documents from a Microsoft Windows network.
Not only will the courts ban the use of Microsoft software, but they can also identify and sentence the officer in charge of doing this for Microsoft – and he being an intelligence officer, cannot be excused from such negligence as allowing the use of a closed source proprietary operating system from a convicted monopolist who has been bribing the officials at every level of government.
Microsoft stands to lose the Indian market.
They know that and that is exactly the ONE SINGLE reason that they are trying to show the media that they are innovating in Microsoft Research India.
To those Indians working for Microsoft Research in India, I have onle one word: Traitors.
However, that is besides the point here, I apologise for digressing so much.
Back to Microsoft, this means that they cheated the courts, including but not limited to the Higher State/Province Courts but also the Supreme Court of every land they operated in.
The law applies to everyone else other than the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court however can pick up anyone for subverting the Court’s opinion via “Contempt of Court”.
Cheating a Chief Justice is an insult that may go unpunished, but cheating ALL SITTING CHIEF JUSTICES EVER, is something that can never go unpunished and they did exactly that.
In most lands, Microsoft will be serious trouble if they even open their mouths – in this case, it is worth listing the names of the individual lawyers employed by Microsoft in all countries, because they can leave Microsoft today, but the fact that they have subverted legal process and cheated their own judicial system cannot be isolated from their identity.
Expert opinions in the US may disagree with this, but in other lands, laws are not written by US lawmakers nor interpreted by US Chief Justices. And to lose the world market is not a minor incident. Microsoft is going. Put your money on Google, IBM, Novell or even Red Hat.
Courts have very funny ways of toppling business regimes, especially those already convicted of massive frauds.
If the NSA key angle is added to the case, and ACLU style organisations get into the business, Microsoft is, well, HISTORY – a mass sabotage of citizens’ privacy and freedom of life, speech and expression.
Note that NSA is not a “legal and constitutional entity” outside the US of A, but facts are very much facts. So if there is any weight to the NSA key, Microsoft is sunk.
Asta la VISTA, baby!
ram said,
January 25, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Interesting these documents show so much about the Australian education system and government offices. I think the Australian Federal Police and ASIO should take a good close look on how Microsoft does ‘business’ here. A very close look – otherwise what is the point of having a Federal Police Force and a Counterintelligence agency?
Roy Schestowitz said,
January 26, 2009 at 3:09 am
This is the type of abuse worth reporting to pro-competition agencies (e.g. EU Commission), not the police forces.