
The Deadly Microsoft Embrace - arpitnext
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main50.asp?filename=Ws101011MICROSOFT.asp
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saturdaysaint
It really is infuriating how unnecessarily expensive and confusing Microsoft
has made creating and exchanging simple document files. I talk to people all
the time that are unsure about how they'll edit their resume on a new system
or think they'll need a new copy of Office to update a file on their new
computer (and then they're confused as to what version to buy). It's amazing
how few normal people know about Google Docs - Google should really be pushing
this on consumers more.

Microsoft might have made a lot of money off of this confusion, but in the
process they've become the antithesis of "it just works" in a lot of people's
eyes. They've made some of the most basic functions of computing an expensive
pain in the ass for most of the PC era.

~~~
exit
on the other hand i feel _slightly_ locked in with google docs.

it doesn't seem to let me export my revision history, for example.

also, does it actually offer a download format such that:

"google docs" -> "download as" -> "upload to google docs"

returns you to exactly the same document?

~~~
saturdaysaint
Revision history would be nice, but I can't really agree about lock-in: you
can very quickly/easily download all of your files (even allowing you to
specify different formats for each file type). Switching to, say, Dropbox,
would take a few minutes at most.

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127001brewer
_"...Linux’s Ubuntu operating system comes for free and requires no updates,
upgrades or expensive antivirus software to keep the laptop in shape. ..."_

This is not completely true since Ubuntu does provide (various software)
updates and upgrades.

 _"... The proximity of the Clintons and the Gates is well known to the world
and needs no explanation. ... And the revelations of WikiLeaks only show how
the US has been forcing governments across the world to buy expensive
Microsoft licenses."_

Really? That statement seems a little outrageous.

Ultimately, as the article highlights, why are states _"...moving back to
laptops for poor rural students preloaded with Microsoft Windows."_?

Does a computer preloaded with Microsoft Windows provide a _significant_
advantage over a Linux distribution? For example, what is the goal of
providing computer to poor rural students? Is it to make them computer
proficient or Microsoft Office proficient?

(Also, presumably, these low-cost computers (provided to poor rural students)
are not capable to run Windows 7 or Windows 8 - what version of Microsoft
Windows is preloaded?)

 _Edit: Updated styling._

~~~
tsycho
>> For example, what is the goal of providing computer to poor rural students?
Is it to make them computer proficient or Microsoft Office proficient?

I am no Microsoft supporter, but you have asked an important question here: If
the long-term goal is to teach them Office, so that they can do administrative
tasks etc. at their future workplaces (which are probably running Office2k on
WinXP, based on my [anecdotal] observations), then Windows+Office training
might actually be useful to them. Not everyone is being trained to become a
programmer.

~~~
127001brewer
_Not everyone is being trained to become a programmer._

Why do you assume using Linux means you are training to be a programmer?

Personally, I have installed Ubuntu Linux on friends' "old" laptops that have
gotten "too slow" for Windows upgrades. Instead of being thrown out, these
machines are still being used for common tasks such as internet browsing and
e-mailing.

Ideally, a non-profit - if there isn't one already - could install a Linux
distribution on an "older" machine and give those to low-income students in
the States. (How often do government agencies cycle through machines? What
happens to those old machines?)

~~~
voyvf
> Why do you assume using Linux means you are training to be a programmer? >
> Personally, I have installed Ubuntu Linux on friends' "old" laptops that
> have gotten "too slow" for Windows upgrades. Instead of being thrown out,
> these machines are still being used for common tasks such as internet
> browsing and e-mailing.

I'll vouch for this. My wife uses Xubuntu, and she's an accountant. There
_was_ a period of learning for her, but then again, part of that was due to
the fact that one can automate just about anything via cron. (:

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WilhelmJ
The article says that over the next 5 years, about 7 Million laptops will be
purchased. The price of windows mentioned in the article is about $110 at
current rates, which means $770 million order for MS. That definitely is a big
order for MS, considering the full laptop is only expected to cost ~$300.

~~~
danmaz74
I really can't see any good reason to spend that money to put windows in
laptops for poor children. It would be much wiser to use linux and buy more
laptops.

~~~
gldalmaso
Exactly. Digital inclusion and license purchasing is fairly counter-
productive.

At least in Brazil the government has adopted a pro-FOSS policy.

~~~
narad
Even now, RedHat Linux is used in local government offices. Wondering what
happened now, for switching to Windows 7 for freebie laptops. Huge drain on
the exchequer.

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rbanffy
Too much "the IT intelligentsia", "not offend one of the world’s most
profitable and powerful corporations", "the future of computing", "The
proximity of the Clintons and the Gates is well known to the world and needs
no explanation" for me to take the article seriously.

A bad defense of free and open-source software is not always better than no
defense.

~~~
saturdaysaint
I rolled my eyes too, but the next three paragraphs put it in a reasonable
light.

 _Two cables, one originating in the embassy at Hanoi and the other at the
embassy in Tunis, throw enough light on the scale and nature of the
government-corporation nexus in the United States and its influence on world
governments.

According to one of the cables, the US government ‘intervened’ to force
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dzung to sign an agreement with Microsoft
CEO Steve Ballmer that would require Hanoi to pay Microsoft $20 million for 3
lakh licences. This even though the Vietnamese PM wanted to hold the Microsoft
deal as a deliverable till he met the US president later that year.

Now put that deal in an Indian context where 68 lakh licences would be
required under Jayalalithaa’s ambitious free laptop scheme and the business of
diplomacy becomes clear. The Microsoft deal of 3 lakh licences was dubbed in
the cable as ‘the most significant agreement Vietnam has ever signed with a US
business’._

The wikileak in question is pretty damning -
<http://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=04HANOI966>

"Microsoft representatives also highlighted their concerns about recent GVN
comments that it plans to switch to open source software (like Linux) to "fix"
its IPR problems. While acknowledging that the decision on what type of
software the GVN wants to use is up to the Government... Switching to open
source does not insulate the GVN from the responsibility of ensuring that all
software used by the GVN is legitimately licensed, Microsoft asserted"

It sounds like they know how to throw their weight around in the developing
world.

~~~
rbanffy
It's very common (not to say it's right) for governments to actively engage in
protecting the interests of companies based in them. Microsoft is no
exception.

<http://wikileaks.org/cable/2007/12/07SAOPAULO1001.html>

Neither is Boeing:

<http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/01/09BRASILIA41.html>

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pnathan
One of the things that makes a typical Linux install better is the
preconfigured programming environments on it such as Perl or Python.

Unlike Windows 7. It would be so nice if Microsoft installed Visual Basic
Express on all Windows as a matter of course.

(Of course, this carries with it the presumption that creation is better than
consumption, and to really use a computer, you need to be able to program it).

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Delmania
Some key points from the article. The first requirement was " A dual boot
system that had free open source Linux with the proprietary Microsoft Windows
starter edition with antivirus software valid for a year."

The second requirement was "In its new tender, ELCOT asked bidders to provide
only Microsoft Windows and removed Linux from the list."

And a key point made from someone from ELCOT: " “We will retain dual boot
laptops to ensure uniformity in the supply of laptops by different vendors,"

Windows was always going to be on the laptops. More than likely, the vendors
charge more for setting up dual boot systems.

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tejaswiy
Sensationalism aside, reducing HDD capacity by half, removing wifi, removing a
whole bunch of educational software just to pay for Windows? Just. Wrong.

EDIT: Although, I don't completely buy the argument about upgrades. I still
have laptops running Windows XP that work great.

