Counterpunch: License to Bill

"But all this was besides the real point. The AIDS donation was a mere quarter of the moolah Microsoft was lobbing at the Indian computer market and astute journalists noted the contrast between the Bill-g fan club in Delhi and Cyberabad (as the Andhra capital of Hyderabad was nicknamed) and the media neglect of Richard Stallman, President of the Free Software Foundation, who was in India at the same time. Stripped of the AIDS hoopla, Gates' visit was actually a major skirmish in Microsoft's ongoing jihad against the free software, Linux, which Stallings [sic] was promoting and which is broadly popular with governments all over the world, especially in developing countries.

"And no wonder. While Microsoft has a perpetual and costly license and its proprietary system is closed to innovation, Linux is free and open to technical development. As a matter of fact, the Indian government had just then issued a directive to move from Windows to open source. The Gates donation was nothing more than a fat bribe to the government to drop Linux and let Microsoft lock itself into the mammoth profits ripening for harvest down the road..."

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Related Stories:

• CNET News: India Eyes Own Open-Source License(May 11, 2005)
• CXOtoday: e-governance Takes Penguin To Rural India(Jul 15, 2004)
• CyberIndia Online: "Linux Does Not Depend on Microsoft’s Failure"(Jun 04, 2004)
• The Indian Express: India Sits on the Fence in Open Source Debate(Apr 28, 2004)