[Cialug] Mandriva - open letter to Steve Ballmer

[Jeff Davis]

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Nathan Stien wrote:
> On Nov 2, 2007 9:06 AM, Dave J. Hala Jr. <dave at 58ghz.net> wrote:
>> Its really about ethics. Business is business and there are people that
>> will do *whatever* it takes to get the job done. Of that group of
>> people, there are some where ethics isn't considered.
> 
> Ok, so in your view has Balmer committed an ethics violation?  If so,
> what was it?  He clearly got the job done one way or another.
> 
> In the case of bribing officials, I presume you would find ethical fault there.
> 
> But as a hypothetical, let's just say he phoned up the Nigerians and
> through sheer salesmanship convinced them they'd be better off with
> Windows, and they bought it.  Would his conduct in this case be
> unethical?

It's not like Microsoft hadn't already come to the table though.
They tried (I can only assume they did their best) and lost the
deal to Mandriva's solution.

If it was "sheer salesmanship" that got them to agree to pay for the
custom Mandriva solution then replace the OS with Windows, I would be
interested in seeing the cost Nigeria will be paying for this new OS.

Otherwise it just smells fishy.

Both Windows and Linux have their pros and cons, but the manner in
which this apparently occurred looks questionable.  Was there an ethics
violation?  I doubt we'll ever know unless the Nigerians come clean on
what when down.


> 
> Is there any other means, ethical or unethical, by which he could have
> closed this deal?  I'd be curious to hear other speculations.
> 
> - Nathan
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