Nigeria favors Linux vendor Mandriva over Microsoft once more
Nigerian government overrules PC supplier's decision install
Windows XP in place of Mandriva Linux on Classmate PCs intended
for students
By Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service
November 09, 2007
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Microsoft may not have beaten French Linux vendor Mandriva in a
large deal to supply Nigerian elementary schools with laptop
computers and software after all.
Mandriva had closed a deal in mid-August to provide a customized
Linux operating system and support for 17,000 Intel Classmate PCs
intended for Nigerian schools, but found out last week that the
company deploying the computers for the government, Technology
Support Center (TSC), planned to wipe the computers' disks and
install Windows XP instead.
Now, however, a government agency funding 11,000 of the PCs has
overruled the supplier: Nigeria's Universal Service Provision
Fund (USPF) wants to keep Mandriva Linux on the Classmate PCs,
said an official who identified himself as the program manager
for USPF's Classmate PCs project.