<span class="gmail_quote">On 11/4/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Tom Poe</b> <<a href="mailto:tompoe@fngi.net">tompoe@fngi.net</a>> wrote:</span>Dan Sloan wrote:<br>...<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
><br>><br>Personally, I hope Mandriva takes the opportunity to incorporate the<br>Nigeria experience into their sales strategy. Imagine being able to<br>approach 150 governments around the world, tell them that they can order
<br>Mandriva for their schools, and Microsoft will not only pay them back,<br>but will give them excellent terms on replacing those computers with<br>Windows, plus whatever "kickback" they choose. Sounds like a winning
<br>marketing strategy to me. Of course, it might not be the best business<br>model for Microsoft, but a well-deserved one, if you ask me. :)<br>Tom<br></blockquote><br>Except that Microsoft wins that way. They're banking on the continued business provided by these deals, which they've almost certainly guaranteed by a contract.
<br><br>And Mandriva loses by not having that contract. More than just not having the contract, they're screwed out of any possibility of getting a contract for a long time.<br><br>My guess is that Mandriva believes that Microsoft lied or bribed in order to get the contract. Which is illegal in the US and probably in Nigeria, too.
<br><br>Chris<br><br>