Microsoft's Emerging Markets push didn't begin until after OLPC gained acceptance. As others have already noticed this is a cynical attempt on Microsoft's part to counter OLPC. It doesn't matter whether Emerging Markets ever takes off as long as OLPC is damaged by the effort. Microsoft has almost zero experience and history of supporting developing nations but they do have a lot of experience thwarting competition. Hell, they can't even refer to these nations as anything other than "markets". There are no people no cultures no nations, just markets.

Interesting that, even with your editing for grammar, you overlooked the use of "Columbian" instead of "Colombian". Is there not that much difference between Washington DC and Bogotà?

Hey Joe, Nice to know that you are so disappointed and frustrated with this announcement from MS to give away softwares for students in $3. If you considering hardware cost, why don't your favorite Apple give away Macs with necessary softwares in $100 to students? At the end of the day what is in benefit of the people matters. So instead of criticizing everything, learn to appriciate or QUIT WRITING.

Tell me something all you people who don't like MS for doing this.
"What would you say if Linux and or Apple did exactly the same thing?"
Would you say "good on you" or would you berate them just like you are doing to microsoft ?

Neil, well Linux already does the same thing and I don't think Apple could ever do the same thing. $3 MacBoooks? Mhhh not even in the black market.

Difference is Neil you get the full thing with Linux. Full OS. As many apps running as you can fit comfortably in your RAM. Full networking. Open Office comes with a Draw and Database components which Office Student does not include. You'll still be able to use it even if you don't comply with one of the following:

A full-time or part-time student currently enrolled at an accredited K-12 education institution organized and operated exclusively for the purpose of teaching its students.1

A K-12 student under the age of 18 attending a legally recognized home-schooling program.

A full-time or part-time student who has completed K-12 educational requirements and is enrolled and taking at least six credit hours in an accredited institution of higher education.1

A full-time or part-time faculty or staff member of an accredited educational institution, working at least 20 hours a week and who has duties related primarily to the education of the institution's students.1

A household member of a person who qualifies.

You must also consider the reality of some third world countries. It is easy to look at this in America and say "Oh what a great gesture". But think about it for a second and consider things that we here take for granted.

Sure they get a $3 OS on a (I'm assuming they already have) refurbished PC. Who's going to pay for the $10 USB drive so they can take their info out. Lets not even consider DSL or Cable. Lets do dialup. Got you any idea how poor communications are in some places? Who's going to pay for the phone line? For the dialup service? For the antivirus?

You see things start to add up to quite more than just $3. Also, if paying those extras is such an uphill climb for some of these countries, what would a full Windows license payment be? Probably a 2 to 3 year's worth of internet (dial up). The wise will choose Linux. They'll have the full thing today and they'll still have it tomorrow when they grow up.

Hang on a minute though, this is supposed to be paid for by governments right? Lets say they want to tool up 5 million students with the software, thats $15,000,000! Not to mention the cost of hardware. How will they afford it? I live in one of the richest nations in the world and even my government wouldn't be able to afford that!

Desperate times desperate actions.
Microsoft cannot recover from this, this is the sign that things will never get better from now on for Microsoft. $3 for any software from Microsoft is very telling, Microsoft knows the Linux / open source model is not easy to do, knowing the vast amount of open source like the linux kernel, is *free of charge* for the download, Microsoft cannot open that far and a desperate copycat is the best Microsoft can do pulling down its software value at the same time. The reactions of investors of this failed idea will impact Microsoft to the core.

This is news? Since '05, MSFT has been selling full versions of its Office suite to Asian governments for less than $50. Catching a $3 vig from "students" is just a way for the guys in Redmond to pull more money from those same governments so they can avoid embarrassment from their less than strict enforcement of existing international IP laws.

Face it, the cost of any MSFT product is determined by who is sitting on the other side of the EULA. Retail customers in the U.S. and EU pay 10X the price of customers elsewhere.

I can't understand why the rest of the comments are so negative. Nobody is going to force these students to pay full price sometime in the future. Making the anology of a "drug dealer" is ridiculous. Consumers, weather they are in the US or a 3rd world country, always have choice. If they want to deploy OSS, they can do it at anytime. MS software is not that addictive, it's just the best.

If the other commenters are suggesting that the 3rd world countries should use Open Office or any other "free" software, i don't see this as a viable alternative. Open Office is super resource hungry, and the functionality is not anywhere as easy to use as MS Office. These poor countries are not going to have computers with 4GHz processors and 1GB+ RAM. The software on these computers needs to run well on a piece of junk computer. Why not give the students the best applications and the best experience on low cost hardware?

Wilcox says that $3 may be too much. I don't see how that is too much when we're looking at $100+ for a laptop. This price seems like it is inline.

I think that the other posters are just MS haters, and it wouldn't matter what MS does or doesn't do. I think that this is commendable on MS' part.

Tell me something all you people who don't like MS for doing this.
"What would you say if Linux and or Apple did exactly the same thing?"
Would you say "good on you" or would you berate them just like you are doing to microsoft?

To answer your questions:

Linux isn't a company. It's a kernel. It's the GNU software around it, especially the gcc and g++ on which it and that GNU software is built, that makes it complete platform.
If Apple did it, I'd think that they were as terrified of Linux and FOSS as Microsoft is.
I'm not sure about the berating part of which you speak. Just a healthy dose of mistrust that I would direct at any monopoly with a history of using its monopoly position to crush competitors, be it a monopoly built on oil, software, or diamonds.

No, 3$ are not much (apparently), it's like asking if the bait is flavorful, yes, it's flavorful, but the problem is the hook, and later how much Ms will charge to those poor nations? without counting on the technological dependency to which Ms condemns to them .
Additional,the hipocrisy of MS is really annoying (to this people's type the nickname is , tomb painting of white) you know that I want say.
Finally, I want to talk about a very important point and forgotten one , really we are conscientious of the enormous harm done by Ms? , it with their policy to become rich at absurd levels (look on Bill Gate's money) has been able to widen the breach between poor people (who could not buy the software) and the other people (that bought it), between the rich countries and the poor countries and it is because software (not everything) It's NOT LUXURY, IT IS the DIFFERENCE THAT YOUR SON CAN OR NOT TO OBTAIN a GOOD LEVEL of education. it is in essence, my friend, EDUCATION, and the people as Bill Gate and his gang apparently do not understand it.
(Please , excuse my English)

Brian
I know that "Linux" is a platform, I meant the people behind Linux ! For example Novell !
And as far as the "berating" part was concerned "I'm not sure about the berating part of which you speak".
You must be blind then ... have a look at the comments on all three articles that Joe Wilcox has done, and then you will know ! !
In actual fact they are NOT articles at all !!
They are just different ways of putting the same thing, Joe Wilcox hates MS, this spread of articles on the "SAME THING" proves it.
Even down to an article with only people who agree with him, who are of course "PRO" Apple and Linux users, just to back his statements up.
Joe Wilcox even at one stage wanted people who were commenting to state if they were employees of Microsoft, what about the other side of the coin Joe !
Almost all of the "bad" comments against MS are from people who either don't use MS products, or are as they say "have to use MS" for their work.
The pure fact is that this site is now overun with "commenters" (not to mention the editor Joe Wilcox) who have an axe to grind with Microsoft and therefore will alwaysgive bad comments on this site.
There are hardly any commenters left now that are on the "good" side as they have left in disgust at the views of the editor (Joe Wilcox) fairly soon I will too ... but not yet !

"Open Office is super resource hungry, and the functionality is not anywhere as easy to use as MS Office. These poor countries are not going to have computers with 4GHz processors and 1GB+ RAM."

Sigur, what are you talking about??? I'm currently running Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn on a 1.4GHz Athlon system with 512MB of memory and 40GB hard drive. It runs fine. I'm using OpenOffice.org 2.2 and performance is perfectly acceptable.

Moreover, OpenOffice.org looks pretty much like earlier versions of MS Office, so usability is also fine. Are you deliberately trying to spread FUD?

"There are hardly any commenters left now that are on the "good" side as they have left in disgust at the views of the editor (Joe Wilcox) fairly soon I will too ... but not yet !"

Why not??? You obviously don't enjoy it, and you have nothing useful to add.

Your complaints are getting *very* tiresome. In article after article after article, you keep telling us about Joe Wilcox's bias. Okay, already! We get it--Joe Wilcox is an anti-Windows, Microsoft-bashing bigot. You don't have to go on and on and on about it. Cripes!

If you don't want to read Microsoft Watch, then DON'T READ IT. What's the point in constantly berating Joe? It's not as if you're going to put a stop to his column. Ziff Davis won't stop paying him just because you drone on about his biased views.

Microsoft Watch will get the readership it deserves. With or without your harassment. Please get over it.

Hey Richard
What are you ?
Joe Wilcox's apologist or something !!
You are always there to stand up for him ...amazing !!
As you yourself said (and I quote) "Joe Wilcox is an anti-Windows, Microsoft-bashing bigot. You don't have to go on and on and on about it. Cripes!"
Thank you for agreeing with me, and oh by the way you forgot to specify what OS you are (as per Joe's instructions).
I have already stated previously that I am not a MS employee and use Windows Xp, so who do you work for and what OS do you use ??
You have to do what Joe said you know .

Microsoft's move essentially negates the "free" claim by open source competitors. I totaly understand the frustration by the open source supporters for this announcement...

What I don't see is Microsoft offering this here(USA). There is a lot of poor people here that cannot afford Vista or other Microsoft products. Watch Microsoft looking at other countries and here in the United States people choose Linux instead! Linux use is growing fast here. A lot of people I know have dual boot and when Linux on the desktop does get good enough and people get sick of Microsoft's continual mistakes well that says all. Thank you.

I've spent 1,000's of dollars on Microsoft software over the past 15 years and have earned many times that in return.

It's been a good investment to say the least. I do not resent microsoft's success. Few things are as moral as fulfilling a need. Some commenters might try doing that some time. It really can make you feel good about yourself knowing that you've helped someone else succeed. Thanks Bill!

However, Microsoft has not been very responsible with it's R&D expenditures. We waited 5 years for Vista and look at what we got. I'll gladly fork over more cash to Microsoft when their new software products have some tangible benefit to my life, my family, or to my work.

Until then, $3.00 and the lameness of Vista are just not worth it. Sorry Microsoft, but failure is fair game.

Neil, you really are getting tiresome. FYI, I am a retired software engineer who has worked with Windows NT, 2000, and XP for 7 years in the area of graphics drivers at ATI Technologies. At home, I regularly use 4 computers: a Vista box, an XP laptop, an iMac G5, and a Linux machine. Collectively, I've had over 20 years experience in IT. So I know something about desktop computing environments.

I do not defend Joe. I, too, find some of his articles not quite on the mark. But I enjoy reading his materials. The thing is, I don't go on and on and on tooting the same horn. You've already made your point repeatedly. So let's get over it and move on...

Joe, I'm neutral when it comes to desktop operating systems. I see merit and demerit in all three principal candidates. Linux is still too arcane for most people, and it is especially problematic when it comes to wireless networking. But Linux is admirable for its openness and flexibility.

Apple Mac is wonderfully easy to use and nearly ideal for most consumers. And while it's no longer "expensive" compared to a PC with a similar feature set, Apple products still present a price barrier to less affluent consumers.

Windows XP is a solid operating system, although it is plagued by security problems. Vista is half-baked and was released far too soon. After 5 years and billions of dollars, we should have seen a more revolutionary product, a less buggy product. Where's the "Wow?"

The Unlimited Potential initiative is offering a crippled version of XP and some office software to emerging economies as a response to the Linux incursion. This is an act of desperation; Microsoft fears Open Source.

They can spin this as altruism but the truth is pretty obvious. I doubt that many countries will take Microsoft up on their offer. Time will tell...

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols said it best:

"I don't think, however, that Microsoft will get away with it. Dumping product is a no-no in any country's trade plans. Besides, a home-grown version of Linux, OpenOffice, and Thunderbird is still cheaper than Microsoft's $3 suite. People who don't live in places where Microsoft rules have also realized that, while the first taste of Microsoft products may be free, the long-term costs are enormous.

Last, but far from least, people everywhere are finally realizing that they don't need to buy into Microsoft's expensive monopoly to use their PCs. It's really quite simple: You don't need Windows anymore, and Microsoft is continuing to con you, and the rest of the world, into believing that you do."

Yes, the long-term costs of adopting Microsoft products are high. And, yes, you no longer need Windows anymore to run your PCs.

Joe, your best point is about these emerging economies building their own software industries. Doing so with Open Source is much better than going the Microsoft route. I believe China and India and others will resist Microsoft's offer. Thanks but no thanks.

esteemed Chris: I think that anybody in this foro resent microsoft's success or money (anybody for example resent to google-on average-) the people resent the "how ", the lack of fair play ,the manipulation ,the monopoly, the domineering ,the arrogance ,the lack of scruple (and the lack of quality too) .
I resent the opportunity missed , 10 ,5 years ago MS 3$ suite had been sincere ,positive , now merely opportunist, egoist and negative .
When you are the "King of the hill" you got duties, Ms forgot it.

esteemed Chris: I think that nobody in this foro resent microsoft's success or money (nobody for example resent to google-on average-) the people resent the "how ", the lack of fair play ,the manipulation ,the monopoly, the domineering ,the arrogance ,the lack of scruple (and the lack of quality too) .
I resent the opportunity missed , 10 ,5 years ago MS 3$ suite had been sincere ,positive , now merely opportunist, egoist and negative .
When you are the "King of the hill" you got duties, Ms forgot it.

China and India will not go with "Open Source", they will go with Windows and they already have been for years.
No .. I don't mean the legit version of Windows ... I mean the pirated version !
Most of the people in Taiwan for example never buy their software it is all pirated, and the same thing has been happening in China for a while now.
These places ALREADY HAVE windows, MS is actually trying to lure them into using "legit" versions that's all!
As for Linux taking over the market as "Richard" said and I quote:" Linux is still too arcane for most people, and it is especially problematic when it comes to wireless networking."
Linux is also not an OS that non computer literate users use, it is only for experienced users, and not for first time users, whereas with Windows anyone can use it, whether they be NOVICE or Power User.
It has been said that only 400 (approx) legit copies of Windows Vista have been bought in China, what they didn't say was that there was "thousand's" of counterfeit copies of Windows Vista being used in China.
Love them or hate them Microsoft is the OS of choice throughout the world.

Neil, it's important to note that officially China has not gone with Windows. They're pursuing a government policy of employing Linux for their software infrastructure. Red Flag Linux and Sun Wah Linux are prime examples.

Moreover, Linux is being adopted by governments around the world, Mandriva in South America, Ubuntu in Eastern Europe. France and Germany have been notable in the news for official Linux adoption. Most recently, the French National Assembly has moved to Linux:

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS6755477184.html

While your point about Windows piracy is valid, it may not last much longer as Microsoft makes it harder and harder to use pirated software. Can these people who use pirated XP get software updates from Microsoft? And what about Vista? Without software updates, these OS products are practically worthless...

Also, even though Linux is not too friendly for novices, this can be mitigated by Linux preloads, as Dell is planning to offer later this spring. In the enterprise, Linux can be administered by IT staff and the users don't have to worry much about OS internals. This has also been the case with Windows--most enterprise users don't know much about Windows either.

The Open Source community is continually improving Linux usability for novices. I recently installed Ubuntu Feisty Fawn and I was impressed by its usability enhancements. It *is* getting less arcane.

The fact is, Windows has its own set of problems and issues. It is not a clear choice between Windows and Linux. Linux has proven itself to be a worthwhile alternative and we are seeing that unfold in the rest of the world.

Boy Richard did you "gloss over" the Linux area or what !!!
The area of use that you were talking about is where you have a specialist IT Manager.
What about "Personal" computing ???
No IT Manager there at all, and I still stick with my original statement that Linux (any flavour) is for "Power Users" ONLY !
Windows is much .. much easier to use than ANY other OS, and you know it !
Linux will NEVER reach the popularity of Windows because you NEED an IT Manager to help you with it until you are a pro user, and that my friend takes a long time !
I do not care that YOU think that "Fiesty Fawn" is easier to use, lets hear that from a NOVICE, you know what you are doing with Linux, so it "seems" easier to you, but what about a NOVICE ?
The same thing could NOT be said !!

One company I work for does tech support Neil. One of their main business in the tech support area is Windows reinstalls. Most people don't have a clue! Given the recent Microsoft issued security patches a great deal of calls have come forth due to sound becoming non responsive. It seems to be some flaw in the patch which is fixed by another Microsoft patch. But guess what? Most people don't have a clue! Another patch broke Adobe PDF creator software. Fix? Reinstall the Adobe app. They got billed because they didn't have a clue how to fix it!

Gerardo
Many thanks for proving my point, if you don't have an IT manager then you won't be able to use Linux.
Most people do not know how to fix things thats why MS put the "System Restore" function on Xp, if all else fails try System Restore !
Tell me something does Linux have a "System Restore" ?? (I don't know myself).

Love them or hate them Microsoft is the OS of choice throughout the world.

Yes, and it is Microsoft's monopoly position and Microsoft's tendencies to use their monopoly position to further extend their monopoly is what attracts so much negative attention.

The same anti-monopoly feelings in the past have been directed to many other monopolies, including AT&T and IBM. For example, earned derision towards IBM's monopoly position inspired the following oldie but goodie (sung to the tune of Three Blind Mice):

System/3!
System/3!
See how it runs!
See how it runs!
Its monitor loses so totally!
It runs all its programs in RPG!
It's made by our favorite monopoly!
System/3!

The extreme--and often justified--distrust of Microsoft's monopoly is no different.
"Microsoft Watch" can be viewed as "Monopoly Watch", since "Microsoft" and "Monopoly" are currently synonymous.

"Windows is much .. much easier to use than ANY other OS, and you know it !"

Neil, Windows is easier when nothing goes wrong. But when you do have a problem, it can be quite daunting to diagnose. All operating systems have a learning curve and I would argue that Windows' is pretty steep.

If you bother to check the 15-year history of Windows, millions of users have had countless nightmares with the OS...from Win 3.x through Win 9x/ME to Win 2000/XP. And now the Internet is rife with reports of Vista compatibility issues, driver problems, and annoyances.

It would take a long time to acclimate to all of these problems, my friend. In this respect, Linux is no worse.

You nailed it, Neil. Linux and other vendors are applauded by their loyal minority whenever they do something like this. On the other hand, they look for an underlying agenda when Microsoft does the same thing. Newsflash! Microsoft is in the business of making money, and they offer great products that make this possible.

Richard
Your comment regarding "And now the Internet is rife with reports of Vista compatibility issues, driver problems, and annoyances. It would take a long time to acclimate to all of these problems, my friend. In this respect, Linux is no worse."

I am deeply troubled the first part of this comment "And now the Internet is rife with report of Vista compatibility issues"
A lot of this is pure RUMOUR and that's it, even on this site there have been a lot of people saying that they have NO PROBLEMS at all !
A lot of it has been built up RUMOURS !
Secondly "Linux in worse" ... granted ! Also it is no better than Windows Xp either, and currently Vista needs a bit of time to get all the drivers up to scratch, and that is NOT MS's fault either, the drivers are not theirs !
All the computer component manufacturers have to get their act together, the same thing happened when Xp was first released .... driver issues !

There is nothing wrong with Vista persay as far as security and stabitlity is concerned.
The other day I was told not to use "powerDVD" ! Why because the current version has NOT been made ready for it, and as yet there is NO retail product released ... how long does it take these suppliers ??
It is almost May 2007 and they knew that Vista was going to released to retail in January and yet they (not Microsoft) still have not released updated versions.
As I said the same did happen with Xp, so why have vendors like PowerDvd for example taken so long to get THEIR act together ??

Neil, I'm sure some of the reports of Vista problems are rumours, but you have absolutely no basis for saying to what extent the rumours pervade the Internet. Of the thousands of instance reports that can be found by Googling or visiting various websites, I expect most of them to be valid. Be careful of pronouncing some sort of worldwide collusion without concrete evidence--you risk sounding like a conspiracy nutcase.

You simply do not know that "a lot of it has been built up rumours."

And, yes, you're right when you say that many people have expressed satisfaction with Vista. No one is suggesting that every Vista user in the world has problems. The point is, a good fraction of them do, and that's enough reason for telling consumers to proceed with caution.

This is the same kind of reasoning one applies to other consumer products, whether they be cars, televisions, or microwaves.

You're also right that third-party partners have to assume some of the responsibility for Vista's problems. But while this may absolve Microsoft to some extent, it doesn't change the fact that consumers still face potential driver headaches or application compatibility issues. Only time and maturity can correct this.

Which is precisely why I tell people to hold off Vista adoption till Service Pack 1, at least.

Your experience with Windows may be positive, but it is impossible to extrapolate this beyond your own social circle.

Richard
Point taken !
But I still maintain that sites like this one literally "thrive" on it, and try and get any mileage they can from it.
And the people who comment here comment in other places as well.
That's why I say that the actual basis that there are some troubles with Vista would be the case, but the problems are then blown out of all proportions later on.
What do you think ?

I agree with you, Neil, to a point. But let's not blow *that* out of proportion, either. Statistically, only a small percentage of the thousands of accounts may be fabricated or exaggerated. You're looking at a handful of websites (including this one) and trying to draw a worldwide conspiracy.

Speaking from personal experience, I've encountered several annoying bugs within the first three weeks of using Vista. This lends credence to the large number of bug reports on the Internet. If you take out the "rumoured" accounts, that still leaves an overwhelming range of reports.

Listen, when I used to work at ATI, I spent a number of years on-site at Microsoft in Redmond, working closely with the developers there. Even upon product release, there were large numbers of bugs left for fixing in Service Pack 1. So it shouldn't come as any surprise that we would be inundated with user reports now.

I saw this same scenario played out with Windows NT, 2000, and XP. Why should Vista be exempt? Vista was long overdue and Microsoft was desperate to get it out the door.

Vista contains millions of lines of new code, making for the most complicated commercial software product in history. As is typical of any "Version 1.0" software, it has to go through teething pains...

The $3 package issue:
In Brazil, people are smart enough to know what MS offers and the tradeoffs. Government officials tend to be more corrupt than patriotic. The problem with Microsoft is that it is a software producer only. A $3 software with no hardware to run it does not stand, faced with the poor people. Even if it came with hardware, one would need to subscribe an expensive internet connection. The plan would have a chance to work if MS could offer an integrated package (software + hardware + connection) at an affordable price.
The OLPC, having (hardware + software), lacks the internet connection, but it comes with a relatively far-reaching wireless net connection device, so the school could provide a single server to feed the OLPCs with e-books and save artwork and texts produced by the children.
For these reasons, I guess MS's package is not going to fly.
The Windows Vista issue:
The largest videocard vendors ATI and nVidia want a way to sell large numbers of video cards. If they follow the Vista specs in a 44-page booklet, the product will be very expensive if "complete" and will not be signed by MS if incomplete. It will be impossible to produce a fully specification-compliant product, which is a requirement by the media providers. If all the protections to premium content are there, the cards with their drivers will be vulnerable to the penalties of image degradation or shutdown. If they don't react as specified, they may go to the revocation list automatically and permanently shut down. The risks of planned malfunction and consequent lawsuits are so great, that it may not be worth the effort of doing full development. On the other hand, if they provide good drivers for existing videocards for the GNU/Linux platform, then Dell will be able to sell many videocards, which is their primary goal. There is no gain to be fully compliant with Vista. I wonder what nVidia and ATI will actually do. If I were MS, I would be very worried. If MS cannot sell Vista in quantity (like the projected 90 million units in 2007) it will be in trouble with shareholders, and the $3 package is not going to save it.