"A project to provide thousands of cheap computers to
Brazilian schools to bridge the digital divide in the vast country
pitted U.S. software giant Microsoft Corp. against the left-wing
Workers Party (PT) this week.
The politically-charged government plan to supply 290,000 cheap
computers to all of Brazil's public high schools, was intended to
spread basic computer skills and throw open Internet access in this
country of big regional differences.
But it ran into trouble last week when a judge ordered the
suspension of the tender to chose a company that would provide and
install the computers. Five of Brazil's fixed-line telephone
operators were hoping to win the contract.
Criticism of the plan started before that, with the government's
choice of Windows as the operating system for the computers instead
of the much cheaper Linux operating system."
