I beg to differ, there seems to be an inherent flaw in our thinking.
Whenever we think of large-scale computer users, we think of corporates.
yet we say that this is the Information Age, we are already speaking of
Information haves and have-nots.
Any person -- who considers himself/herself a part of the
"civilised society" agrees (at least publicly) that everyone has a right
to have access to the basic needs for life -- ie. food, clothing and
shelter. And yet in this present times, we find that without access to
information you simply can't live or earn a decent living. The importance
of information as a basic need for any individual may not manifest itself
clearly as yet, but the writing on the wall says as much to anyone who is
even a bit clued in about the state of the modern society.
Sure, the Bushmen in Kalahari or our very own tribals in the drought-ridden
Kalahandi does seem to eke out a subsistence living without using
information technology. But can any of us on this list see ourselves
leading
such a life?? I say we can't!
Looking ahead on a long-term basis, we see a more and more inter-connected
world. It will be the ordinary people who will be the major consumers of IT
and its by-products. Not necessarily only in the form of computers but
intelligent appliances as well.
For example, its may be questioned what good is a firewall to a home-user
or any measure that implements advanced computer/network security. Well,
for users having connections to the Net through cable-modems, a firewall is
not a luxury to protect their systems against external intrusions. Since
the individual capacity of home-users will always be much less than the
corporates, they have as much need and right to use a secure OS as any
corporate anywhere.
We also have to take into account the public-utilty IT services that most
countries will have to provide to their citizens in the long run, to make
sure that they maintain some semblence of a society where the access to
information doesn't define the new caste system.
IMHO, Linux fits in wonderfully as the true People's OS. Sure MSFT's
Windows is still the ubiquitous home desktops...but in a way its like the
Model T Ford...Henry Ford, the father of modern assembly-line production,
once said about it.."People can have it (ie. Model T Ford) in any color, as
long as it is black"
--Indra
----------
From: Arup Bhanja <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [ilug-cal] OFF-TOPIC : Microsoft Worth
Date: Tuesday, July 20, 1999 11:50 AM
Russell McOrmond wrote:
> Countering the propaganda from these companies is very important for
the
> open-source movement as it is the strongest force in opposition to the
> adoption of these alternatives.
No amount of countering will make any movement successful unless it is
widely adopted by the people whose decisions matter -- the corporates.
They spend more money in IT than a single person would and it is their
involvement that makes a movement grow by leaps and bounds. Red Hat got
angel money from the largest chipmaker in the world --Intel-- when you
get that kind of support you can relax and get on with your job.
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