The UK's Green Party has accused Microsoft of "unacceptable bribery" in trying to run Windows on the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project.
"Open source tools are a way to let the global south develop their own knowledge economies," Siân Berry, principal speaker for the Green Party, told VNUNet in an email.
"Microsoft wants to restrict the greatest profits in the knowledge economy to already established software corporations like itself.
"By installing its programs on these laptops Microsoft hopes to create market domination and vendor lock in. That is unacceptable bribery.
"It would be a massive missed opportunity not to extend software freedom to students in the global south."