Free Software

OK, this was on the front page of Slashdot, so it's not like many of you out there haven't seen it already, but I just have to boggle a bit.

Gerald Ilukwe, the general manager of Microsoft Nigeria:

"It's easy to focus on cost and say how much is a product, but at the end of the day it's the total impact that's important. You can give people free software or computers, but they won't have the expertise to use it,"

...

Umm. So you propose selling them a bunch of software that they, by your own logic, don't have the expertise to use? Why not use free software and use the money they saved on software licensing to pay for some training?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for using commercial/proprietary software when and where it is appropriate, but this seems like a ridiculous no-brainer.