Bill Gates offers cheap Windows to Asian governments

[dArKeR]

AP , PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA

Microsoft Corp chairman Bill Gates said yesterday that the company will hold talks with Asian governments to offer tailored, cheaper versions of its Windows operating system geared toward bringing computer skills to millions of poorer people.

The discussions will grow out of a project Microsoft announced last week to offer a version of Windows, dubbed Windows XP Starter Edition, in Malaysia and Thailand under government-sponsored programs to provide more affordable personal computers to beginning users.

"We will talk with other gov-ernments about whether they have a program to get very, very low-cost computers to their citizens," Gates told a news conference during a visit to this Southeast Asian country.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worldbiz/archives/2004/06/30/2003177166

I don't believe Billie cares about the "poorer people's" computer skills. It's just a way to make money.

-------------

Clinton in San Jose, I was 4 feet from President Clinton – Update
http://darkerxdarker.tripod.com/clinbn3.htm

[judge_smales]

1. Not so mush to directly make $$$,

but to keep 'em from learning too much about *nix. He's trying to
prolong the formation of critical mass around a non-Windoze platfor
for just as long as possible.

[jeff30997]

2. Isn't that called dumping?

[mstrsplinter326]

3. maybe he could offer cheap windows to americans... n/t

[billbuckhead]

6. China, South Korea & Japan are working on their Linux version

Could that have something to do with it?

[CharlesGroce]

4. Several Asian governments are already collaborating to make a better linux

And this is scaring the hell out of Microsoft, as it should. After all, why should these governments PAY for Windows when they can use and modify linux for free. And after a few more years of collaboration within the Asian communities, and the open source community around the world, Windows will be toast.

[gtar100]

5. There's already a cheaper alternative - Linux

Message to Asia:

"STOP!! Don't go with Windows!! It's a TRAP!!"

[TeeYiYi]

7. I think it's about more than money . . .

How NSA access was built into Windows

Duncan Campbell 04.09.1999

Careless mistake reveals subversion of Windows by NSA.


A CARELESS mistake by Microsoft programmers has revealed that special access codes prepared by the US National Security Agency have been secretly built into Windows. The NSA access system is built into every version of the Windows operating system now in use, except early releases of Windows 95 (and its predecessors). The discovery comes close on the heels of the revelations earlier this year that another US software giant, Lotus, had built an NSA "help information" trapdoor into its Notes system, and that security functions on other software systems had been deliberately crippled. . .

More: http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/5263/1.html

TYY

[Trillo]

9. Maybe it's all about money

I was quite intrigued with a report I read a year or two ago about how Microsoft's bookkeeper keeps the company's books in an old-fashioned journal: a paper journal.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

8. Bill Gates comments on his own tactics

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-212942.html?legacy=cnet

Gates shed some light on his own hard-nosed business philosophy. "Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, but people don't pay for the software," he said. "Someday they will, though. As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."

Sort of like a crack dealer. Sweet.

Sometimes I wish Michael Moore made a movie about the IT industry and the Copyright Nazis.

[hatrack]

10. "Bill Gates Desperately Tries To Stiff-Arm Linux For Six Months"

I mean, that's about what this comes down to . . .

[dArKeR]

11. Gates on fourth visit to China as Microsoft tries to consolidate position

AFP , BEIJING

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates yesterday began his fourth visit to China in three years as the world's largest software firm ramps up efforts to consolidate its position in the huge Chinese market.

Gates is primarily in Beijing to open computer classrooms in Chinese schools but he will be conscious that competitors are moving aggressively into the Chi-nese software sector.

IBM, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard are working to put Linux, a low cost alternative to Microsoft, onto the world's PCs and the Chinese government has made clear it is keen to embrace a variety of software systems.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worldbiz/archives/2004/07/01/2003177299

[funnymanpants]

12. Gates afraid of linux

as other poster pointed out.

[DoyBoy]

13. Bill Gates is an f*cking jerk

And Windoze is crap. Always has been. Apple embraced LINUX (free BSD) and used it as a base for OS X. I tell you I have used Win & the old Mac system for years and the new OS is the best thing next to LINUX itself! I hope he implodes his little monopoly by being to paranoid.

[Swamp Rat]

14. Ha ha! Let 'em have it for nuthin' because that's what it's worth.

Give me sweet sweet UNIX!

[cosmicone]

15. It is actually a desperate ploy

China recently switched to Linux and Star Office for about 1 million plus computers the chinese government needs each year.

India is doing the same. The sheer volumes of those computers will mean windows will lose market share and with market share goes the monopolistic power.

So Bill Gates is desperately trying to stop the tide.