[ Thanks to Jason
Greenwood for this link. ]
On September 29, 2003 the Government of Republic of Macedonia
gave green light for the beginning of negotiations for
accomplishing a deal for strategic partnership with the leading
software corporation in the world–Microsoft. This deal, according
to the announcement from the Government meeting, would legalize the
existing software used in the state institutions; and aid the
creation of Macedonian version of the Microsoft products, firstly
of the operating system Windows. So far, the Government has not
reveal how much the prospective deal with the corporation owned by
software guru [sic] Bill Gates will cost Macedonia, but they are
stressing that a large part of the money will return to the
country. The deal includes free training for the government staff,
financing Government projects, for example the so-called
‘e-government,’ while Microsoft would be obligated to donate
products for the educational institutions, and also 20 local
companies will be helped in development of their own software
solutions and favorable legalizing of the software at all business
subjects in the country.“This deal caused reactions among some computer experts in the
country, devoted to using other operative systems, mostly Linux.
The loudest are the members of the Free Software Macedonia,
non-governmental [civic] organization of about 50 users, which
attempts to convince the public and the responsible Government
officeholders that using Microsoft software is not favorable
solution for Macedonia and that lot of countries in the world
switch to other operating systems…”