Mandriva unlikely to move in with Microsoft anytime soon
That's what this news would lead one to suspect. In sum, Mandriva won a deal with the Nigerian government, only to have Microsoft fight tooth and nail after the fact to win it back. Just good competition, right? Maybe. But Mandriva's CEO points to something a bit more (or less, depending on how you look at it).
In an open letter to Steve Ballmer, Mandriva CEO Fran?ois Bancilhon called out Microsoft's tactics:
Then your people entered the game and the deal got more competitive. I would not say it got dirty, but someone could have said that. They fought and fought the deal, but still the customer was happy to get CMPC and Mandriva.
So we closed the deal, we got the order, we qualified the software, we got the machine shipped. In other word, we did our job. I understand the machine are being delivered right now.
And then, today, we hear from the customer a totally different story: "we shall pay for the Mandriva Software as agreed, but we shall replace it by Windows afterward."
Just a hunch, but I suspect the reason Nigeria can afford to buy both Mandriva Linux and Microsoft Windows is that Microsoft is giving away Windows. Microsoft is playing for keeps, and it has so much money in the bank that it could afford to give away its software for the next 3,000 years (or so :-).
The one positive from this is that Mandriva looks to be holding firm on not tying up with Microsoft over patents. Good for you, Mandriva. A "partnership" wouldn't have helped in this instance, anyway.
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
François Bancilhon, CEO of some little Linux company has written an open
letter on his blog:
An open letter to Steve Ballmer
He accuses me of bribing the government of Nigeria into replacing their
stupid little Mandrovia OS on an order of 17,000 computers with Windows!
His deal was already complete, the computers being delivered to schools, the
monies paid: when suddenly the Nigerians informed Francois that on delivery
the hard-drives would be reformatted and Windows installed!
He rails: "Hey Steve, how do you feel looking at yourself in the mirror in the
morning?"
Well Frenchy! I feel pretty good, pretty darned good indeed! I wake up with
any of several different ... never-mind. But, I am carried to the shower but my
assistants, dressed, groomed and briefed every morning. I feel pretty good
indeed!
I would normally ignore any such accusations from you people, but for some
reason this one disturbed me, so I told legal to reply, this is their message:
"Microsoft strongly believes that individuals, governments and other
organisations should be free to choose the software and other technologies
that best meet their needs. We believe Microsoft offers the best overall option
of value, integration, interoperability and support, without complexity or
added dependency on services.
We are seeing strong market demand for Windows on low-cost devices to
help governments in the areas of education, local innovation, and jobs and
opportunity. We find that the government agencies are looking at the
complete picture - bringing the benefits of technology to more people
requires software, hardware, training, well-designed curricula, and
stimulating sustainable local business ecosystems.
Microsoft has a strong relationship with the government in Nigeria and will
continue to partner with government and industry to help meet their needs."
In other words, it was our strong friendly relationships with certain key
government officials, their families and knowledge of their personal "needs"
that influenced these persons to scuttle your little OS on these computers.
Thats just the way business is done Frenchy! If you can't take the heat get out
of the Smoke-hut!