Dear Fred,
I have been researching and working with information technology in Nepal
for the last 3 years now, and I am also very much drawn to the open
source philosophy of Linux. There are a few Linux
supporters/cogniscenti in Nepal, but not many. Most basic computer
users with whom I have worked or talked have never heard of either the
philosophy or the software. As in Indonesia, almost all software in
Nepal is in effect free, as IPR's are not observed in practice, and most
commercial off-the-shelf software applications can be purchased for the
cost of the disk onto which they are pirated. People outside of a
handful of urban areas have very limited access to computers, and most
computer knowledge/education in these areas consists of learning to use
Microsoft applications and Windows and DOS operating systems. I
understand that the Mexican Ministry of Education's experiment with
attempting to introduce Linux-based machines in schools did not work out
well mainly because virtually nobody knew how to work with Linux, and it
was too difficult for them to figure it out with the resources available
and limitations existing in that context.
With all of this, I have the same reservations as Don does. It seems to
me that Linux development in Nepal would need to come from the middle or
upper classes where people have the resources needed to learn the
intricacies of the operating system and programming languages, and the
freedom of time to experiment with them enough to be able to produce
something that would be useful at the local level.
However, you mention that in your village of Saligao you and/or others
have had some success with using or adapting Linux to the local
situation. This is very encouraging to me, and I would like to hear
more about this, and what contextual factors you think were significant
in facilitating whatever has been accomplished.
Regards,
Layton Montgomery
Frederick Noronha wrote:
> "Don Cameron" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> This would be wonderful, but I do wonder how the person located in this
>> African village, with everything involved in terms of literacy, economy
>> etc., would determine exactly what is needed from the latest version of
>> Red Hat or Debian, let alone build it? - To begin with, who is compiling
>> these systems into African village dialects? ...
> Dear Don, Where are you writing this from? I myself live in a village,
> Saligao, which I welcome you to visit anytime to see what is possible
> from there. ...
------------
***GKD is solely supported by EDC, an NGO that is a GKP member***
To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type:
subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd
Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at:
<http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
