Mandriva, Microsoft and the Nigerian Connection

I'm being a wee bit facetious, but Mandriva does have a gripe with Microsoft about Nigeria.

Mandriva CEO François Bancilhon's Halloween trick for Microsoft was an open letter to Steve Ballmer complaining about a lost Linux deal with the Nigerian government. A day earlier, Mandriva issued a press release about the deal—for Mandriva Linux to run on 17,000 Classmate PCs.

Bancilhon wrote Microsoft's CEO:

"We recently closed a deal with the Nigerian Government. Maybe you heard about it, Steve. They were looking for an affordable hardware+software solution for their schools. The initial batch was 17,000 machines. We had a good answer to their need: the Classmate PC from Intel, with a customized Mandriva Linux solution. We presented the solution to the local government, they liked the machine, they liked our system, they liked what we offered them, the fact that it was open, that we could customize it for their country and so on."

Microsoft sales folks "fought" the deal, he claimed.

"We closed the deal, we got the order, we qualified the software, we got the machine shipped. In other word [sic], we did our job. I understand the machine [sic] are being delivered right now. And then, today, we hear from the customer a totally different story: 'we shall pay for the Mandriva Software as agreed, but we shall replace it by Windows afterward.'"

The week I moved to San Diego, Microsoft issued a glowing press release about the positive, global impact of its software on 82 countries. Microsoft commissioned IDC to conduct the study. Nigeria is among the countries supposedly receiving economic benefit from Microsoft. I scanned the IDC report, but didn't find the benefit identified elsewhere—that "Microsoft contributes 47 percent to Nigeria's IT and economic growth."

I got a chuckle from today's All Things Digital headline about the Mandriva letter: "Request for Urgent Business Pact: I Am Prince Steve Ballmer of the Republic of Redmond." The headline got me to thinking about that 47 percent figure, what's included—and what's not. What about that underground e-mail scam economy from prince so-and-so looking to get his money by you giving yours first? I just couldn't resist.

For Mandriva, the lost deal obviously is serious business. But can Bancilhon really expect that Ballmer cares?