Innocence, greed or ignorance of politicians get exploited by Microsoft, which turns more citizens into Microsoft customers

A few growing pains aside, a Linux deployment in a Santa Rosa, CA elementary school district is maturing robustly, letting teachers and students stand apart from their previous dependence on Microsoft Windows while they try on new open software attitudes.

Not only did Windows Vista - billed by Microsoft as its biggest operating system for 10 years - fail to distinguish Microsoft's latest fiscal year from previous, non-Windows-Vista years, but Microsoft also missed its own expectations by several million dollars.

« Many universities and engineering schools provide their students with a free Microsoft Windows ® license through a partner program with Microsoft. Yet, when students buy a new computer, they also pay for another (OEM) Microsoft Windows ® license included in the computer price.

"The One Laptop Per Child project, launched by MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte in 2003, was supposed to lead millions of children around the world to information technology and freedom [...] I now expect that the main effect of the OLPC project—if it succeeds—will be to turn millions of children into Microsoft users.

What a coup Microsoft has pulled off. After getting millions of people all over the world to shell out for the sugar-frosted turd that was Windows Vista, here we are three years later at the Windows 7 launch, and Microsoft has people practically falling over themselves to pay more money so they don’t have to use Vista any more.

Microsoft has made progress in getting its Windows software to work on a low-cost laptop computer for poor children that currently runs on rival Linux software, an executive said Thursday.

Today we’re going to continue our journey through the Ubuntu software repository looking for more children’s Linux educational software. As more and more parents allow their children to use the computer, setting up your kids with a Linux distribution makes even more sense:

The world’s most popular operating system is Windows, which is made by the Microsoft Corporation. Linux has no links with Windows at all. Microsoft doesn’t contribute anything to Linux and, in fact, is rather hostile toward it, because it threatens Microsoft’s market dominance. This means that installing Linux can give you an entirely Microsoft-free PC. How enticing does that sound?