05.23.08
Gemini version available ♊︎Microsoft Lies and Insults South Africans to ‘Sell’ OOXML
ZDNet caution: be careful of the Microsoft spin, in this case courtesy of Tom Espiner, who speaks only of Microsoft and its sympathisers as though they are telling the truth and not just trying to market themselves.
That’s just the blinding media blitz we repeatedly warned about. Take with a grain of salt anything Microsoft says about its ‘embrace’ (as in EEE) of ODF.
The article quotes Jason Matusow quite a lot. That’s the guy who was “amazed” by how much the word “open” could be bent and recently insulted the intelligence of people in South Africa, who ‘dared’ to realise that Microsoft isn’t good for their economy. Remember that Microsoft also breaks the law in South Africa where it tries to illegally obtain software patents.
Matusow is now being slammed over at Tectonic, in an article that also reached the front page of Digg.
South Africans don’t understand OSS – Microsoft
Despite having an open source strategy the South African government doesn’t really understand how to benefit from OSS. This is according to Microsoft director of corporate standards, Jason Matusow. Matusow, who was in South Africa on an “external outreach” trip around the time SA adopted ODF as a national standard, writes on his blog that not only does government not understand how to benefit from open source software, but South Africans were unlikely to ever do any “deep” development work on Linux.
A few days ago, Matusow said something along the lines of “it’s good to be back to blogging.” After these insults (see more details at MilkingTheGNU), maybe he should blog less. Making fun of poor people and suggesting that Free software is a matter of cost (as opposed to freedom) is a route to miserable failures. It makes Microsoft look very arrogant and deceptive. █
“Let’s face it – the average computer user has the brain of a Spider Monkey.”
–Bill Gates
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master_chief said,
May 23, 2008 at 10:27 am
Advice to ballmer and gates : one should not speak so much lie that people feel disgusted dealing with you. you cannot fool everyone everytime, sooner or later people are going to find out…and it wont be good.
MS brand image is in shatters….
Ed landaveri said,
May 23, 2008 at 8:46 pm
“Africa (and the whole Third World) needs Microsoft like it needed colonialism.” Mr. Paul Saunders
Matusow is only reflecting his bosses a band of scared tyrants afraid of people waking up to real freedom. Matsulow have entered into history along side many idiots who spoke of racial superiority or justified genocide. The only dumbs in SA and the whole world are the ones who could swallow Matusow’s rhetoric.
egg said,
May 23, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Ballmer the sissy monkey hides from eggs and when he recovers, fumbles and misses the point: you are a shit bag Ballmer, you and your company are fucking millions of people.
This must be corrected and eggs as we know are served for breakfast.
Roy Schestowitz said,
May 24, 2008 at 12:57 am
Ed,
There’s a tinge of poetic justice in this story. South Africa has seen itself suppressed by power and greed and now it helps the world find this redemption, by sharing experiences and lessons it had learned. It took the lead in its fight against corruption (Microsoft/ISO). I guess that’s what they mean by “humanity for others.”