A while back Nigeria decided to sign an agreement with Mandriva for an initial shipment of 17,000 Intel Classmate PCs with a customized Mandriva operating system. The Nigerian government was looking for an affordable hardware and software solution for its educational system, and found one in Mandriva and the Classmate PC. However shortly after that Mandriva received notice from the Nigerian Government saying “we shall pay for the Mandriva Software as agreed, but we shall replace it by Windows afterward.”
In an open letter to Steve Ballmer, Francois Bancilhon of Mandriva tells an ugly tale well worth reading. However, there is a lot of information lacking though, and we haven’t heard everything yet, but the if it’s true it’s a certainly sad behavior from a company like Microsoft.
In a story over at TheInq, Bancilhon speaks up about the affair and even though the story doesn’t tell us the end, it seems were in for a debacle not seen in a long time.
