and breath...... well said Jon. I think Joseph might have been playing
devil's advocate though. I was most interested in
Obama's rise to the highest seat, should be a lesson to cliques who
think Microsoft will dominate forever,
i have i used several distro's of Linux, but right now i might say
Linpus is the closest to wrestling Windoze
from the lead.
Is there ways we can use this recent election to draw experiences to
promote Open Source? Yes I think that OSS can be spread much faster
through the grassroots, which seems to have played a huge part in this
election. We can encourage that changing to use OSS is not something to
fear but embrace. To quote the man "Yes we can!". We can continue to
define/develop how open source differs from closed and keep explaining
how the community works.
IMHO I do not think any one distribution is going to wrestle the lead
from Microsoft, and in all honesty I think this is no longer the battle.
Focusing on the desktop has developed Linux a long way but with more and
more Applications being placed in the cloud I think this is a) were the
focus should be and b) were I think Linux actually leads. What is
interesting is that Microsoft are listening and have sped up the
development of Windows 7. This should be the communities focus, as this
I feel is a primary strength. The speed at which many can move over one
monolith company is amazing. I am always amazed at how withing hours of
a bug being filed in Linux fixes are posted, where as it take MS weeks.
This I feel is one of the OSS double edged swords, that you can "skin
the cat" any one of infinite (exaggeration) ways and as such it become a
myriad of options and choices, and no sooner do you make your choice and
a new one is presented. I seem to spend my entire life reading and
learning about new applications and methods, which I love, but recognize
this is not for everyone, and a very big part of my job is to filter
this for my clients.
So how to we retain the complexity and diversity of OSS, but at the same
time allow people (including me) to make simple decisions as to which
OS/Email App/etc they would like to use, and would do the best for them.
Personally I feel very buoyed about the elections in the U.S. and
especially by the reaction of the world to it. I too come from a diverse
background and have a diverse heritage. Anything that allow
people/countries to move beyond the politics of me to us and our I think
can only be a good thing. I especially was blown away at how
Youtube/Twitter played a part in this election. Whilst the realism that
for the majority of Africans is that this is still a world away, slowly
one person at a time this is changing and with it the way we must view
the world as a collection of individual countries and or distributions.
Simon
J.Gosier wrote:
I can't believe this was said from a native African.
Here is the one reason why everyone in the world should care that
Obama is th president Elect of the United States. Since World War II
the U.S. has been the most powerful, influential nation on the
planet. For better or for worse, the economy exploded rapidly, the
state of Europe today was 100% affected by what happened then and
Africa has been on the receiving end of shovels full of money from
both the U.S., Europe, the U.N. and the World Bank. Because of other
nations meddling, there's been a chess game at work when it comes to
Africa's developing countries. One leader is aided in wresting power
from someone else more corrupt because other nations around the globe
have vested interests in having someone 'friendly' to their ideals.
That more than anything has been the story of Africa since colonialism.
This has lead to the deaths of millions to the rise of a number of
'bad idea to begin with' leaders all over the continent. As much as
America claims it doesn't play this game, it does. It's helped define
borders (ex. Liberia) and end wars. It's helped fight famine and slow
the spread of AIDS.
So whomever controls the most powerful and influential nation in the
world, becomes by default the most powerful person in the world. That
person can be an stubborn, intolerant, childish, ignorant,
unprecedented moron like Georgia W. Bush or it can be a progressive,
inspirational, open-minded person like Barack Obama.
When the U.S. bombed Somalia looking for Al-Quaeda in 2006-7 you're
telling me it 'didn't matter' who was in charge to make that
decision? When we started an endless war in Iraq for reasons that
were blatant lies to the American public, it 'didn't matter' who was
in charge? When our country put pressure on all our 'allies' to
mirror our decisions in all this, it 'didn't matter' who was in
charge? When the American economy tanked because of poor regulation
and oversight from our government, it 'didn't matter' that this
rippled around the world (arguably) sending the world economy into
recession? And ultimately, when George Bush and John McCain tell the
American public 'Nothing is wrong, everything is fine. We must stay
the course.' it doesn't matter? Despite the fact that most of the
world disagreed with how we were making decisions. It absolutely
matters. In fact it matters so much, it matters more than it
*should*, for the sake of 'world-democracy'.
Even if you don't agree with the policies, the ideals and culture of
America, one thing is for sure: we're all connected. My interest in
what's going on in America right now is every bit as deep as my
concern for what will happen to the ANC in South Africa and the
situation in Congo. One thing affects another and, especially in
Africa, history shows us that when one area falls into a chaos, it has
a way of negatively affecting the countries around it.
People around the world often complain about how dumb, ignorant and
aggressive American people can be. I'd argue that, while one man
can't possibly change 300 million people, he can lead in a way that
inspires more to be like him. He can simply serve as a positive
example.
The excitement has nothing to do with the fact that he's black and a
first generation African-American, in my opinion. That's just a
footnote among all the reasons to be excited about Obama...and this is
coming from a Black-American. I'd have been just as excited if his
ancestry were Asian whatever else if his ideals and philosophies were
the same. Hilary Clinton would have made an 'okay' leader but a few
things curbed my interest in her a) how she (negatively) ran her
campaign and b) the fact she supported the Iraq war. Again, it has
nothing to do with race or gender, it's all about the mans mentality
and what he's exemplified in his actions.
Okay, enough ranting about my country for now.
Jonathan D. Gosier
Appfrica International
P.O. Box 1420 Kampala, Uganda
http://appfrica.net - African Technology and Social Media Blog
http://appfrica.org - Incubator for East African Entrepreneurs in Software
Uganda +256.773806071
USA +1.520.318.0828 ext 145
UK +44.2032398156
Skype j.gosier
Twitter appfrica
joseph mpora wrote:
I really don't see the cause for all the excitement. I can understand
why African-Americans are excited, it's the first time the US has
picked a president from a minority (can't remember the exact
percentage but its around 20%)
For Africa, it probably bears not real significance. Obama is
American, his priority is America. I believe his dad (the Kenyan)
abandoned his family and Obama has only visited Kenya a few times.
Would we be this excited if it had been Hillary Clinton, an election
which would have been just as historic?
PS: I was routing for Obama, mostly because what he said made sense,
not because he is black (ahem, African-American)
J
On Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 12:31 AM, Dennis M S <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Need i say more....history has been made ,now every down trodden
fellow can dream....it can only b USA
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