Too much "the IT intelligentsia", "not offend one of the world’s most profitable and powerful corporations", "the future of computing", "The proximity of the Clintons and the Gates is well known to the world and needs no explanation" for me to take the article seriously.
A bad defense of free and open-source software is not always better than no defense.
I rolled my eyes too, but the next three paragraphs put it in a reasonable light.
Two cables, one originating in the embassy at Hanoi and the other at the embassy in Tunis, throw enough light on the scale and nature of the government-corporation nexus in the United States and its influence on world governments.
According to one of the cables, the US government ‘intervened’ to force Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dzung to sign an agreement with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer that would require Hanoi to pay Microsoft $20 million for 3 lakh licences. This even though the Vietnamese PM wanted to hold the Microsoft deal as a deliverable till he met the US president later that year.
Now put that deal in an Indian context where 68 lakh licences would be required under Jayalalithaa’s ambitious free laptop scheme and the business of diplomacy becomes clear. The Microsoft deal of 3 lakh licences was dubbed in the cable as ‘the most significant agreement Vietnam has ever signed with a US business’.
"Microsoft representatives also highlighted their
concerns about recent GVN comments that it plans to switch
to open source software (like Linux) to "fix" its IPR
problems. While acknowledging that the decision on what
type of software the GVN wants to use is up to the
Government... Switching to open source does not insulate the
GVN from the responsibility of ensuring that all software
used by the GVN is legitimately licensed, Microsoft asserted"
It sounds like they know how to throw their weight around in the developing world.
It's very common (not to say it's right) for governments to actively engage in protecting the interests of companies based in them. Microsoft is no exception.
I use MS as well as nix depending, and I do agree that this scenario has simple, clear cut advantages to use nix. That being said, this article just made me feel dirty. I don't know why people have to overstate a point or politicize everything.
A bad defense of free and open-source software is not always better than no defense.