Cedar Pruitt wrote:
At the World Social Forum, a protest gathering that runs concurrently with
the World Economic Forum, the use of software in the developing world is
under scrutiny.
Activists urged Brazil to discontinue the use of proprietary software from
Microsoft and replace it with free open source software developed
cooperatively by groups of developers. "
(...)
It would be especially great to hear from people living and working in
developing nations right now, and their immediate reaction to this news.
Thinking ten years into the future, what will give the most advantage to
the citizens of today's developing world?
-Cedar
(...)
Hi Cedar,
Switzerland being a fast undeveloping country, maybe I may answer too?
From the 2nd PrepCom (feb. 2002) for the World Summit on Information
Society I (Dec. 2003): Rector of Kampala university explained that if
the university had to pay for proprietary licenses, over half its budget
would be used up by that
From the Microsoft event at WSIS I (Dec. 2003): MS was clever enough to
let an UNDP delegate say that developing countries should have a choice
between proprietary and free software. Bonnie Bracey and Andy Carvin
were there too: maybe their notes are more precise than mine
From chatting in the ICT4D Hall at WSIS I (Dec. 2003) with several
African Associations, and from the posts on the "IS: voices from the
south" mailing list before that: these associations apparently have not
much doubt that free software is the solution for them
From memory (chucks, can't find the ref anymore): before Brazil, the
Peruvian parliament passed a law imposing the use of free software in
public administrations. Microsoft attempted to sue in the name of free
market and lost.
Mine: Microsoft has turned a blind eye for years over the use of
unlicensed MS software in developping countries. But now, if you are
using unlicensed MS software, you can't get the updates anymore. And
considering the number of bugs, exploits etc in Microsoft software, this
means being at high security risk.
And then there is the perpetually postponed threat of MS' new OS,
Longhorn, of the hi-power hardware it will require... and of all the
bugs it'll carry along.
cheers
Claude
--
Claude Almansi
www.adisi.ch
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
091 829 04 51
076 401 85 69
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