Francois Bancilhon, French editor of Mandriva Linux, recently published an open letter to Steve Ballmer on Mandriva’s corporate blog.

In his letter, he relates that a few months ago, his corporation won a deal where 17000 PCs destined to Nigerian Schools would be equiped with his Linux distribution.

We recently closed a deal with the Nigerian Government. Maybe you heard about it, Steve. They were looking for an affordable hardware+software solution for their schools. The initial batch was 17,000 machines. We had a good deal to respond to their need: the Classmate PC from Intel, with a customized Mandriva Linux solution. We presented the solution to the local government, they liked the machine, they liked our system, they liked what we offered them, especially the fact that it was open, and that we could customize it for their country and so on.

Strangely, the Nigerian government recently changed its mind and even if they’re still buying Mandriva’s solution, they’ll be replacing the OS on each system with Windows right after receiving them.

We actually closed the deal, we took the order, we qualified the software, we got the machine shipped. To conclude, we did our job. And, the machine are being delivered right now.

Now, we hear a different story from the customer : “we shall pay for the Mandriva Software as agreed, but we shall replace it by Windows afterward.”

Wow! I’m impressed, Steve! What have you done to these guys to make them change their mind like this? It’s quite clear to me, and it will be to everyone. How do you call what you just did Steve? There is various names for it, I’m sure you know them.

Anyone feel like expressing their thoughts on this?

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