Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Uses Lobbyists to Attack Holland's Migration to Free Software and Sort of Bribes South African Teachers Who Use Windows

“Did you know that there are more than 34,750 registered lobbyists in Washington, D.C., for just 435 representatives and 100 senators? That's 64 lobbyists for each congressperson.”

--CIO.com



Taking a buck (bribe)



Summary: A look at Microsoft's manoeuvrings in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and South Africa

MICROSOFT is behaving in a very ugly fashion these days. Yesterday we wrote about the latest from Switzerland and Groklaw has found this article, on which it remarked as follows: "The article in German indicates that Switzerland signed a deal with Microsoft in a private deal, without asking for bids. This is permitted, I gather, in circumstances where the vendor is the only one who offers whatever it is the government wants. But FOSS exists."



Another European country where Microsoft behaves very badly is the Netherlands, which Microsoft threatened to sue for 'daring' to move to Free software (and away from Microsoft). Having tried to buy off the opposition (and probably failed), Microsoft is now taking it all the way to the top. An anonymous reader showed us this report last night.

‘Microsoft lobbyist criticises Amsterdam’



[...]

Recently, Microsoft was sharply criticised by the Amsterdam city council. It appears that Microsoft is now hitting back by running Amsterdam down in the corridors of the European Parliament. Or is it?

Amsterdam wants to lead the way in the introduction of so-called open source software in order to become less dependent on large corporations such as Microsoft. Recently, the company caused irritation by reportedly forcing an unneeded software subscription worth 800,000 euro on the municipality.


This is just business as usual for Microsoft, which lobbies and bribes on a regular basis (Sun too claims that it may be bribing). We've already remarked on the allegation that Microsoft is almost practically paying OEMs to drop GNU/Linux and Groklaw has just found this page.

A monthly allowance will be paid to qualifying teachers for a period of 5 years, renewable every 5 years, upon proof of acquiring the computer.


Pamela labels this "Paid to use Microsoft in South Africa," adding that "If Microsoft keeps paying teachers to use its software and has to pay for their computers too, I think they'll go out of business in no time. Are people not willing to buy Office 2007? And what does it say about Microsoft's alleged commitment to OLPC?" Microsoft goes a long way to sabotage South Africa's migration to GNU/Linux and ODF. It's a targeted attack.

“There's a lot of Linux out there -- much more than Microsoft generally signals publicly -- and their customers are using it...”

--Paul DeGroot, a Directions On Microsoft analyst

Recent Techrights' Posts

Professor Eben Moglen on How Social Control Media Metabolises Humans and Constraints Freedom of Thought
Nothing of value would be lost if all these data-harvesting giants (profiling people) vanished overnight
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
OpenBSD Says That Even on Linux, Wayland Still Has a Number of Rough Edges (But IBM Wants to Make X Extinct)
IBM tries to impose unready software on users
Permacomputing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 27, 2023
IRC logs for Monday, November 27, 2023
When Microsoft Blocks Your Access to Free Software
"Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches." [Chicago Sun-Times]
Techrights Statement on 'Cancel Culture' Going Out of Control
relates to a discussion we had in IRC last night
Stuff People Write About Linux
revisionist pieces
Links 28/11/2023: Rosy Crow 1.4.3 and Google Drive Data Loss
Links for the day
Links 27/11/2023: Australian Wants Tech Companies Under Grip
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Links 27/11/2023: Underwater Data Centres and Gemini, BSD Style!
Links for the day
[Meme] Leaning Towards the Big Corporate CoC
Or leaning to "the green" (money)
Software Freedom Conservancy Inc in 2022: Almost Half a Million Bucks for Three People Who Attack Richard Stallman and Defame Linus Torvalds
Follow the money
[Meme] Identity Theft and Forgery
Coming soon...
Microsoft Has Less Than 1,000 Mail (MX) Servers Left, It's Virtually Dead in That Area (0.19% of the Market)
Exim at 254,000 servers, Postfix at 150,774, Microsoft down to 824
The Web is Dying, Sites Must Evolve or Die Too
Nowadays when things become "Web-based" it sometimes means more hostile and less open than before
Still Growing, Still Getting Faster
Articles got considerably longer too (on average)
In India, the One Percent is Microsoft and Mozilla
India is where a lot of software innovations and development happen, so this kind of matters a lot
Feeding False Information Using Sockpuppet Accounts and Imposters
online militants try every trick in the book, even illegal stuff
What News Industry???
Marketing, spam, and chatbots
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, November 26, 2023
IRC logs for Sunday, November 26, 2023
The Software Freedom Law Center's Eben Moglen Explains That We Already Had Free Software Almost Everywhere Before (Half a Century Ago)
how code was shared in the 1970s and 80s
When the So-called 'Cancel Culture' Sees Everything in Free Software Through the Scopes of 'Sex' (Because It Cannot Argue on Technical or Legal Grounds)
Losing the plot
Links 26/11/2023: Debunking So-called G.A.I. and Sierra Leone's National Curfew
Links for the day
In the 'Phoronix Universe', Single Job Openings at AMD Are News, But Not ~400 Layoffs
like a classifieds section
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Microsoft Shamelessly Attacks Both Git and Projects in GitHub, Using Plagiarism in "AI" Clothing (Exit GitHub Now!)
A mountain of plagiarism
Microsoft Loses Market Share, Market Price of Windows Plunges to Almost Nothing (28 Dollars for Vista 10)
GNU/Linux has grown so potent that Microsoft now charges only dozens of bucks for Vista 10
Professor Eben Moglen Stands with Snowden While Moglen's 'Critics' (Microsofters) Keep Defaming Prominent Whistleblowers
Don't listen to Microsoft liars and weasels, who merely try to "replace" Moglen and override his message
"Check Point" + Microsoft Partnerships Extend to Anti-GNU/Linux FUD
a close partner/pusher of Microsoft tries to alter the narrative (change reality itself)
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 25, 2023
IRC logs for Saturday, November 25, 2023
Links 26/11/2023: Fresh Concerns Over North Korea Satellite Ambitions and South China Sea Patrols
Links for the day
Eben Moglen Explains the Connection Between FSF and SFLC (Both of Which Under Attack by Microsofters)
Old clip