Strike Against Free Software: Microsoft Enters Catalonian Schools

It was a pretty personal deal between Steve Ballmer and president of the Generalitat de Catalunya José Montilla. According to an announcement out of Barcelona, Microsoft is to provide the Catalonian schools with touchscreen PCs and projects, making it easier for their students and teachers to cozy up to their proprietary software. The first transaction was to present the city of Lleida a new computer center, although no further details were given.

Not particularly proxy to this decision were the Open Source developers specifically tasked by the government to rid the schools of proprietary software licenses. As Francesc Busquets, software developer at the Generalitat de Catalunya, can attest, "We weren't consulted and or involved in the decision. As far as we know, there hasn't been a change in strategy from bringing GNU/Linux to Catalonia's schools."

Minister of education Ernest Maragall had announced in April 2008 that hundreds of schools would be switched to GNU/Linux. The main reason, he said at the time, was the illegal use of proprietary software.

Microsoft's offer involves the creation of virtual communities under its Live@edu suite of applications and that will be provided personalized e-mail accounts. Meanwhile Microsoft claims that the resulting content isn't coupled with any particular platform. But the bundling with Microsoft's services organized around their updates, together with their proven bad Linux touchscreen support, pretty much ensures Windows as the platform of choice.