I have worked IT in Africa and continue to be stunned at how hard Microsoft is working to lock down the developing world into using its products. They have very little concept, and even less exposure to what open source is all about, even now in 2009.

This is just a damn shame, as they have so few resources in the first place. The last thing they need to spend their resources on is learning massively bloated, proprietary software with features they don’t need and will never use.

Do you think anyone in Redmond develops software specifically for their needs? At low to no cost? Can you imagine a marketing slide at Redmond even saying a thing like that? I cannot, and I know the Redmond crowd first hand.

Last of all, as Sugar is Open Source…if you don’t like the bugs, and that is a problem for you, then you should become part of the solution. I have given of my precious time helping these people, what don’t you?

Sugar has already hurt the reputation of Linux, as most people think that Linux failed on the OLPC. I bet that this will set desktop Linux acceptance back a few years — it is a PR nightmare.

What a mess!

I have nothing against commercial software, large computer companies or even Microsoft (haven’t used it since the days of NT, because I went over to Apple because of the field in which I work)…but in this case Windows is the wrong tool for the job. It maybe what people want, but in this case it is as if they wanted DDT instead of using safer, traditional farming organic methods. Both will get you crops, but DDT will bring a whole host of nasty stuff along with it.