Paul Brown

It's not the first time Microsoft has tried to wrestle away market share from free software using shady tactics. Suddenly, Microsoft seems to have discovered that education is strategic for their enterprise and they are pouring resources into cornering the market... at least in areas where Linux has the lead.

In Spain, Linux had a very good standing in government as well as in education, for example, in Extremadura, Andalucia, and other autonomous regions. A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft focused on education in Catalonia, partially succeeded, and is now bent on taking over education in the whole country.

At the Microsoft Leaders Forum in Berlin in January, Spanish Secretary of State of Education, Eva Almunia, presented four students working with Tablet PCs, using Microsoft. At that time, Almunia was the counsellor for culture, education, and sport in Arágon, and she told the media that Bill Gates was excited about the students' performance with the "useful tool" in education.

According to a press release from HispaLinux, Spain's national Linux association, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government is finalizing a plan that would supply all children who attend state schools with personal computers with touch-screens so to "promote awareness within families of the usefulness of information and communication technologies and encourage their use." Specifically, we're talking about Microsoft technologies.

Despite the enormous load this plan would have on the budget of each autonomous region (which would have to foot the bill), and hence, on the taxpayer, not a cent would find it's way back to any Spanish company. The Spanish Ministry of Education has not considered any other vendor apart form Microsoft, there hasn't been a public contest, and the media and other vendors were not informed about the pilot program until it was over. Furthermore, no other alternative has been considered.

If the plan gets the green light, it would have dire consequences for the communities of Andalucía, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Valencia, and all the other autonomous regions that already have a Linux-based IT infrastructures, which have already been paid for and are in use, in place within their school systems.