What I find amusing is that they're so sure that these impoverished people will prefer their cut-rate Windows over Linux. Really now? Windows comes with practically nothing as it is; a calculator, paint, 4 little games, a cd player, WMP and the worst browser in existence. How much of that is going to be cut out? Same goes with their cut-rate Office.
Compare that to the average 2- or 3-cd distro of Linux, where you get open office, not one but several media apps, the gimp, at least 20 games, and a bunch of other apps, keeping in mind that most people in these countries can't afford even what we consider cheap software.
Sure, there's free software for Windows to download online, but most of it sucks next to what Linux-users take for granted, and what kind of internet connection will be available in these places anyway? This is why Linux is better for them; a 3-cd distro like Mandrake can be downloaded even though it'll take a long time, and then passed around - or maybe someone from elsewhere can give a few copies to people there. After that, they don't need to be hunting for stuff online to download and acquiring a ton of spyware and viruses while doing so. Think about it - if they have Windows and don't download stuff, then about all their computer will be useful for is playing solitaire.
