Comments on: Microsoft aims to reach next billion PC users

New program gives near-free Windows and Office to governments that buy PCs for students to use at home.

[scotty321--2008]

WHY?!

Why in the world would Bill Gates want to poison the rest of the
world with his insecure, confusing, unintuitive, horrible, crash-
prone, virus-laden, completely unusable operating system?? So the
rest of the world can feel computer illiterate & frustrated just like
90% of Americans already do? Someone should be stopping this
man from spreading his filth any further than he already has. We
need to put Macs in the hands of the rest of the world and show
them what a REAL COMPUTER is supposed to be like.

[Kostagh]

Yeah, sure...

Next time you see an Apple for 100 USD post the info here!
'Cause that's how much a computer should cost to be available to the "next billion users".
For "computers over 1000 USD" Apples are at least as prone to "missconduct" as their "Microsoftian" counterparts. I should know it! I'm running an "Apple DTP joint" while working on a PC the rest of the time (when out of office or on other DTP jobs except my workplace). Stop bragging about Apples! They're just as rotten. With a worm at the core too!

[whizkid454]

Are you that dumb?

WHY THE HECK WOULD PEOPLE WHO BARELY HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO STAY ALIVE EACH DAY CARE ABOUT IF THE PC THEY USE IS CAPABLE OF GETTING A VIRUS?! Are you on crack? These people are grateful for anything that will help them! Your comment was plain dumb and was plainly the work of an Apple fanboy. People aren't that privileged to own a prestigious Mac (sarcasm).

I don't see Apple trying to reach out to the poor... Hmmmm. They're too greedy and are so paranoid about keeping their products "protected". Poor, greedy Apple. At least Microsoft is thinking about others needs and not about selling 100 million music players...

[Commander_Spock]

Does...

... this offer of computer software products (which "includes Windows XP Starter Edition, Office Home and Student 2007, Windows Live Mail Desktop and several educational products) from the Microsoft Corporation to the underserved communities in the emerging markets around the world signals the demise of the "LINUX" Operating System. Anyone remembers a company once called "Netscape"!

[donlinux]

I wonder if the $100 laptop per child....

Had anything to do with this? We all know MS is deathly frightened of Open Source and free software. If you can't beat em, buy em or put em out of business !

[technewsjunkie]

Would this be legal in the USA?

I doubt it.

[Maccess]

Refurbished computers shouldn't need licenses

Refurbished computers already shipped with an OS whose license earned money for microsoft.

Sure, it may be Windows 98, 98SE, Me, or 2000, but if the user is perfectly happy with the original OS there shouldn't be a need to pay another amount (whether its $1 or $3) unless he wants to run Windows XP starter edition.

Why not sell the full fledged version of Windows for $10? and why bundle MS Office with it? It certainly is a good deal to have MS Office with the bundle, but so much of the developing world has already moved to OpenOffice.org.

[Ian Kirkland]

Isn't this

exactly how drug dealers get kids hooked on their wares?

[mariomiy]

Software addiction through cheap sampling...

is what a Brazilian government official accused Microsoft of, making the analogy with drug traffic.
Microsoft was so offended by the accusation, that considered dragging the official to court on charge of slander, but could not, because it is true.
Remember, the only thing that Microsoft fears is the truth.

[Sniche]

3rd Rate Software for the Masses

This so called handout of an OS that is ready for the scrapheap
After 2008 M$ will not support it, makes you feel really sorry for
the recipient

[tasehagi]

After 2008 M$ will not support winxp...

...useless

[rcrusoe]

Oh Great

1,000,000,000 more zombies spewing out spam.

[DragonID]

In this light, there is a question of

You can bet the fine old M$ crimeware machine will be there hyping their same old disfunctional crap, with the wonderfully marginal (no charge) fix and patch fodder being offered between scheduled (BS)OS upgrade "solution" gouges. I wonder; would that be an example of resurection, reincarnation, or reoffence?

[nedlohs]

Legality?

Isn't this called "dumping"? I assume the cost to make all that softare is more than $3 and if a foreign company did this in the US, it would be illegal (in my opinion, as a non-lawyer!).

[mariomiy]

People who have never been poor can't feel...

what an exhilarating project the OLPC. I imagine that the majority of participants in the IT forums have never had contact with poverty in childhood or been poor themselves, so they can't understand that, for a poor child, who survives hunger, thirst and infant sickness, the only important bridge to a civilized life is the wisdom acquired from elders, and educational tools.
I do, because my childhood was very poor, but my parents were hard-working and made sure that I had an education. As soon as I learned to read, I read as many books and magazines as I could, always curious to learn more. When I had access to computers, it was fun, too. I learned fast because new knowledge comes easy when one has a good background. I believe that learning is the main goal in life, and goes hand in hand with helping other people to achieve happiness. All other things, material comfort, power in society, are ancillary circumstances, that usually improves as one achieves one's main goal.
For all these reasons, I believe Negroponte is a wise man, who understands the basic needs of every person, and his project will be a revolution. No effort by Bill Gates et al will have such a deep repercussion as the OLPC, simply because Bill Gates only understands business but nothing of poverty and the fundamental necessities of a human being. Bill is just a spoiled brat, and all those who admire him are at least naïve, and need an internship in poverty.
To save his company from great depreciation in the next two quarters, Bill must tell Ballmer to lower the price of Windows Vista drastically, right away. Or else...

[mindstorm]

You are so right, mariomiy!

Negroponte understands poverty and I can only hope that he will be able to drop the cost of the machines to the $50.00 mark so that more children in more countries can benefit. People who are accustomed to using copyright and patent laws as a sword rather than a shield as they were intended will have a rude awakening as you intimated in your last sentence. Also, historically, it was the poor who came here from other countries, looking for an opportunity, that made this country great. Their personal success made this country a success. If we shut them out it will be at our peril because the country will stagnate and decline like the Roman Empire.