Dear Linux Bangladesh Brother, 1st of all Thanks for the 2 paisas :D Yea! We all have the freedom to express and I like to see people expressing. I might love to change my statement, it was "I also think that we should acknowledge Bill Gates's this contribution to the society.", I will like to make it "I will like to acknowledge Bill Gates's this contribution to the society". I will encourage you to read the article (http://www.thedailystar.net/2005/12/07/d512071503102.htm) for "this contribution", because this doesn't refer to training students and teacher in our country. However, I am sorry. I wasn't clear in my previous email and I assumed people will refer to the following rather than training to teachers and students of Bangladesh.
That article include his donations in other areas. Here it is. ==== The Gates Foundation spends most money in the developing world, especially in Africa, fighting diseases, such as Aids, tuberculosis, and malaria. In July this year, Gates gave $450 million for funding research projects such as childhood vaccines that do not require refrigeration, needles, or multiple doses, and finding new ways of preventing insects transmitting malaria that infects 500 million people each year. In October this year, the Gates Foundation gave a further $258 million to fight malaria, making this grant equivalent to more than three-quarters of the total global spending on research into the disease. In essence he has been funding into areas that big pharmaceutical companies should do. ==== Now come to his views. Man he is doing business! He will try to find how he can earn more money. Bill Gates has better marketing managers than programmers! So he manages to get what he wants. May be, even these grants for AIDS and other diseases has other reasons. May be he will ask the govt.s of these country to buy Windows! It can be. But I refer to "this contribution" of above paragraph. Thank you. Best Regards, NZ On 12/8/05, linux bangladesh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Dear Naushad > > I hope you will not mind my 2 paisas :D, we all have the freedom to express > our > views, and with due respect to your views, I would like to point out a few > things. > > You are right in saying that everyone should be judged from a holistic > view, > true, but how holistic can a person become depends largely on that persons > perception of reality, knowledge, etc.etc./ > > First, let me tell you one thing, IE become most popular despite Netscape > being > free -- not because we "chose" to accept IE, but because during that era we > had > to go for a download of an entire night for netscape, whereas IE came > bundled > with windows. I still remember how costly using internet had been back in > 1995~96 -- and downloading software was some sort of an cardiac attack on > your > wallet :D. People didn't have the choice for Mac -- they were neither > easily > available nor were softwares as available like today. Had it been > otherwise, I > am pretty sure people would have gone for Mac. And yes, for a software to > survive in the market, quality is just another irrelevant issue -- as the > *knowledge* of the user is the primary. > > Another issue I would like to add regarding IE, it sucked, but we sticked > to it > because (AND ONLY BECAUSE) it came as a bundle with the OS. Linux was yet > to > mature a bit more for general users back then, and needless to say, the > only > source for Linux CDs were friends/relatives/colleagues returning from > abroad. > We neither had the Elephant Road or BCS Computer City for mass CD > distribution. > Being the developer of first cross platform web friendly Bangla font, I > know > the hassle I had to face to make it work in Windows 98 and 95 -- whereas it > worked flawlessly in Windows NT4, MacOS and Unix alike. Life was not easy, > and > we were habituated to quicker and cheaper solution. > > Now, to address a more serious issue, do you know that at some point in > time in > the past you would have gotten Windows 98 free with any pc/laptop you would > buy? It would come as a bundle, and running any unix like OS in any of them > would have been a major crisis for any general users (who would primarily > use > the PC for word processing, spreadsheet or Power Point at a max, and > largely > play games and listen to CDs or watch movie). Therefore, it was neither a > freedom of choice nor an option for the en-masse. > > And you might be happy that Billy boy is donating so handsome an amount and > training so many teachers and students, but I am trying to visualise the > consequences. What will happen to the teachers and the students after they > are > trained? How many of those students will find a job that can enable them to > effectively use their knowledge? Moreover, as they get to any legislative > position, which OS or technology will they vouch for? This is a long term > effect, and you might not be directly effected by it, but our economy, > politics > and many other aspects are involved -- there is no way of denying it (well, > everybody has a right to deny it, but the facts will remain the same). > These > teachers, maybe not all of them are as bright as we expect them to be, will > never know the potential of Open Source, and neither will the students > until > they meet someone with enought potential from the world of Open Source. > > I know marketing is mostly false or partial truth, but you don't see Oracle > go > for vouching their product while they use someone elses -- as far as I > know, > all the MSN/HotMail and other microsoft sites run on Solaris -- they tried > to > migrate to Windows once, and hopefully most of us still remember the three > day > downtime of all MS sites :D. Now, think, the company that is suggesting > windows > server for your corporate network/setup is unable to effectively use it for > themselves!!! > > Getting back to my point, I don't think he is contributing anything to the > society, rather, it is an investment which he will harvest in the near > future. > And frankly speaking, I feel truly sorry for the teachers and the students > who > will receive the training. As for money, I wish they could use it for > teaching > / learning Open Source technoloigies and enhance their understanding of > ICT. > > > Quoting Naushad UzZaman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > > Dear Brother Alok, > > > > Nice to see your reply. As I mentioned earlier, I am not a big fan of > > Bill Gates:) but I don't want to judge any person with a particular > > point of view or for his particular attitude or deed. There are many > > reasons to hate Bill Gates! But before hating him you should also > > think Bill Gates is the richest person now because there are millions > > of windows users. We had the choice but we chose Windows! (e.g. people > > chose IE! Did Bill Gates forced us to do so? We switched to IE by our > > own. Now we are migrating to Firefox, because we liked firefox. As > > simple as that..) I hope people will migrate to other OS soon too. > > > > However, I am not claiming that Bill Gates is the greatest person:) To > > me Richard Stallman or Linus Torvalds are better human being (from a > > Computer Scientist's point of view). But I also think that we should > > acknowledge Bill Gates's (how do people write Bill Gates's something!) > > this contribution to the society. > > > > Thank you. Best Regards, NZ > > > > > > On 12/7/05, Ahmed Sirajee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Time out!!! > > > > > > What I wanted to mean was fair competition. > > > Without competition there is no existance of a market. > > > > > > Although a fair competition doesn't exist for real. > > > That doesn't nullify the idea of fair play. > > > Does it? > > > > > > Netscape was just an example. > > > And you are right in your point nothing is free. > > > > > > > > > > > > ??? ???? > > > > > > > alok > > > > > > > > > On 12/7/05, beeplove <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > > > while saying, 'Netscape died just because of making IE free with 98' > > > > > > > > also consider the following: > > > > > > > > 1. We computer users were dumb enough to pick right browser. > > > > 2. If I remember correctly, Netscape was also free. > > > > 3. In business, quality is not the only thing. Whether a product > will > > > > servive in the market depends on many thing, quality is one of them. > > > > 4. During the time of Tomas Alfa Edison, he was one who oppose the > > > > efficient use of AC. But after time, we know how efficient is AC. > Can > > > > netscape proof it by time. > > > > > > > > > > > > Finally, I would say, Do we have anything in the world which is > really > > > > free? Think about it again before answer. > > > > > > > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > Mohammad > > > > > > > > > > > > --- In [email protected], Ahmed Sirajee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > > > > > > > > Hi Naushad... > > > > > > > > > > You are godamn right, the article is fantastic. > > > > > Just to wash up some egg shelled brains. > > > > > > > > > > What is the point? > > > > > Is The Daily Star just wanted to prove him as Data Bill Mohsin? > > > > Don't you > > > > > think Netscape died just because of making IE free with '98? > > > > > > > > > > Guilty feeling can drive ppl. to donate profusely, to wash off the > > > > sins they > > > > > made? > > > > > > > > > > What was in that article was a collection of quotable quotes from > The > > > > > Readers' Digest. That noone reads anymore. > > > > > > > > > > Not meant to offend you, pls. understand that. > > > > > > > > > > I hope you would. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Sincerely, > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > alok > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > To unsubscribe send a blank mail to: > > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > Ahmed Arif Sirajee > > > 880172961331 > > > > > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > To unsubscribe send a blank mail to: > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > > > > > > > ________________________________ > > > YAHOO! 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