Bill Gates' Three-Dollar Barricade Against Ubuntu

Apparently deciding that getting $3 per computer in schools was better than nothing, Bill Gates announced in Beijing last week that Microsoft (MSFT) would sell a version of Windows called Microsoft Student Innovation Suite at said price to government customers buying Windows-based PCs to primary and secondary school students.

The timing was more interesting than people think, and had nothing to do with his trip out this way.

See, at the same time Gates was announcing his 99% discount on Windows for schools, Canonical software was launching and offering for free the newest version of the company's extremely-user-friendly version of Linux, Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn to its friends.)

Now, I've extolled the virtues of Ubuntu 6 as a better alternative to Windows XP. By all accounts (I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy yet), Ubuntu 7 is a leap forward in ease of use, to the point where many people - myself included - would never think of going back to Windows.

Whether the guys in Redmond admit it or not, in countries around the world where large chunks of the population live on $1 a day or less, Ubuntu is in a great position to squeeze Windows out of some pretty lucrative markets. Bill's $3 gambit is not about stopping piracy. If it were, he'd make the deal more broadly available. Bill's $3 gambit is about stopping Ubuntu.

Which of course, is free (as in "free beer," and "free disks mailed to your home or office"), and comes with all kinds of excellent software. I can say now with conviction that if I were ever to be forced to give up Mac OSX, Ubuntu can do anything I need to get done.

Let the battle begin.

Comments

[Dennis Byron:]

David, stand back. You're going to get a million emails from the Free Softies (fsf.org) explaining that "free software" is not free as in "free beer." It's free as in "free speech." Canonical can mail it to you for free but there is nothing in the open source software (OSS) bible that says they can't charge you shipping and handling.

The issue isn't whether Ubuntu is "better than" Windows (unless you're into OS internals). The question is whether OpenOffice is "better than" Office 7, Firefox is "better than" Explorer, Real Media is "better than" Media Player, Quicken and Turbotax run well on Ubuntu (they will if you add a Windows emulation layer but why would you do that), and so forth. The good news is that we all get to choose which we want (except maybe that's not true in China?)

But don't kid yourself that this is the white hats vs. the black hats (or red hats I guess in terms of China). Apparently Canonical is maling it for free as a marketing thing. Here's the razor. Did you need some blades? Canonical wants to sell you a service contract just like IBM, MySQL, Oracle, and Red Hat do (and Microsoft will with its $3 Windows).

2007 Apr 24 08:53 AM

[Malkiel:]

Since the devil is in the details, let's get down to details.

In general, given the universal availability of Microsoft products and their highly developed service model, the price offered if it includes reasonable support makes it the best deal, just for this moment.

Ubuntu, however, has a number of special features that make it of special interest to schools. Firstly, it has incredibly easy language interchangeability--yo... can run it natively in several languages by simple language pack downloads and choose your language on startup. You can run simultaneous sessions in different languages, doing a user swap to access them. This is extremely valuable for schools in minority-language countries and even for American school language classes, where kids can use computer programs running natively in another language. Windows requires you to have bought the language-specific version to run it natively (don't get confused by language support for browsers, which is just about typography). Since Ubuntu can be run within Windows by downloading it through the "Wubi" emulator, Schools using Windows can have this feature for free, the best of all worlds.

Another valuable feature is that Ubuntu has a version called "Edubuntu" with kid-specific educational programs and age-appropriate levels of difficulty. I'm not sure how the programs translate across cultures, but in the English-speaking world this would be very valuable for school systems with inadequate budgets for software.

The Evolution email program has all the functionality, including shared calendar, of Microsoft Outlook, making it possible for an underfunded school system to run a simple email server operation on a shoestring. Unbuntu can be run as a server and run a whole school as a network, but a skilled technician is required to configure all that. The software, however, is free, a good starting point.

While Ubuntu gives you all of the basic functionality, and sometimes a little more (and sometimes a lot less) fun than commercial programs designed to run on Windows, there are still problem areas that make it less desirable than Windows, price being equal. The Movie Player software doesn't have DVD codecs installed by default, requiring a knowledgeable user to be able to download and configure it. The Windows emulator ("Wine") requires some skill to configure properly. And wireless connectivity for laptops gets a failing grade so far.

The language issue will loom large in this battle--schools serving student bodies using sparseley distributed languages in the third world will get the most value out of Ubuntu if their national university and education ministries provide technical support for configuration. Advanced industrial countries where Microsoft has a good support network will benefit from the discount (if it's offered) on Windows.

And citizens of the US, if you care about having access to the best programs on the best OS without regard to cost, should consider Apple Macs with the Mac OS...

2007 Apr 24 10:59 AM

[David Wolf:]

Dennis:

I get Canonical's business model. What interests me is that for as log as I've been using Ubuntu, I've never had to pay a nickel.

You're absolutely right - the real question is "choice." What delights me about Ubuntu - and Red Hat, Mandriva, Linspire, and the host of other distros out there is that in the space of the last three years, we've gone from Linux being a hobbyists toy to a real alternative for your average personal computer user. Choice may be the point, but the recent qualitative improvements in Linux (and the evolution of OS X) mean that the choice is a REAL choice now.

Malkiel, you're right, Ubuntu has places where it is still challenged as a complete Windows substitute, particularly for computers used for multimedia. But with an evolution every 18 months, the gap narrows, and the gap with institutions is nearly gone.

As to Mac OS X, that's another discussion. Suffice to say that I run my business and my blogs on Macs, and spend most of my day in OS X.

And lest you think I'm just here to bash Microsoft, let me say that I'm using Microsoft Office - licensed and paid for on all of our computers - and my CFO runs XP on boot camp on her Mac when she has to. And when I'm in the U.S. this summer, I'm buying an XBox 360.

Microsoft does some truly wonderful and amazing things. But they make the second- or third-best operating system, they need to address that, and their best asset - Bill Gates - is off to pasture soon.

2007 Apr 24 12:18 PM

[zxchux:]

I wonder at your arguments. If the salary is less than $1 do you think they would care for either Windows XP or Ubuntu.. ? They would be worrying about how to get food security for next day. I'm pretty sure Windows XP and Ubuntu will be offering that to them.

2007 Apr 24 03:52 PM

[robert_alson:]

A guy tries to overthrow Bill Gates.

www.withyouitspossible...

2007 Jun 15 11:47 AM