[aha] [hackerartnews] [Fwd: [Africasource2-l] An open letter to Steve Ballmer]

[Tommaso Tozzi]

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>---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
>Subject: [Africasource2-l] An open letter to Steve Ballmer]
>From:    Frederick Noronha <fred at bytesforall.org>
>Date:    Sun, November 4, 2007 09:09
>To:      africasource2-l at lists.tacticaltech.org
>          africasource-l at lists.tacticaltech.org
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>http://blog.mandriva.com/2007/10/31/an-open-letter-to-steve-ballmer/
>
>10.31.07
>An open letter to Steve Ballmer
>
>Posted in English, Francais, Mandriva at 10:51 pm by Francois Bancilhon
>
>Dear Steve,
>
>Hi, this is Francois, from Mandriva.
>
>I'm sure we are way too small for you to have heard of us. You know,
>we are one of these Linux company who is working hard to make its
>place in the market. We publish a Linux Distro, called Mandriva Linux.
>Mandriva Linux 2008, our last edition, has a pretty good review and
>we're proud of it. You should try it, I'm sure you'd like it. We also
>happen to be one of the Linux companies that did not sign an agreement
>with your company (nobody's perfect).
>
>We recently closed a deal with the Nigerian Government. Maybe you
>heard about it, Steve. They were looking for an affordable
>hardware+software solution for their schools. The initial batch was
>17,000 machines. We had a good deal to respond to their need: the
>Classmate PC from Intel, with a customized Mandriva Linux solution. We
>presented the solution to the local government, they liked the
>machine, they liked our system, they liked what we offered them,
>especially the fact that it was open, and that we could customize it
>for their country and so on.
>
>Then, your people get in the game and the deal got more competitive. I
>would not say it got dirty, but someone could have said that. Your
>team fought and fought again the deal, but still the customer was
>happy with the CMPC and Mandriva.
>
>We actually closed the deal, we took the order, we qualified the
>software, we got the machine shipped. To conclude, we did our job.
>And, the machine are being delivered right now.
>
>Now, we hear a different story from the customer : "we shall pay for
>the Mandriva Software as agreed, but we shall replace it by Windows
>afterward."
>
>Wow! I'm impressed, Steve! What have you done to these guys to make
>them change their mind like this? It's quite clear to me, and it will
>be to everyone. How do you call what you just did Steve? There is
>various names for it, I'm sure you know them.
>
>Of course, I will keep fighting this one and the next one, and the
>next one. You have the money, the power, and maybe we have a different
>sense of ethics you and I, but I still believe that hard work, good
>technology and ethics can win too.
>
>cheers
>
>Francois
>
>PS: a message to our friends in Nigeria: it's still time to do the
>right thing and make the right choice, you will get lots of support
>for it and excellent services!
>
>
>--
>Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph 0091-832-2409490
>12000+ downloadable, sharable hi-res photos
>http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/
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