+1 only part i disagree with is Brazil's booming economyits actually a bubble waiting to exhale
--- On Mon, 8/8/11, Tim Schofield <[email protected]> wrote: From: Tim Schofield <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [LUG] Is FLOSS misunderstood? To: "Uganda Linux User Group" <[email protected]> Date: Monday, August 8, 2011, 5:18 AM Hi Francis, A very interesting post. I think its been obvious over the last week that even the majority of this LUG do not "get" the concepts behind software freedom and that is very depressing. The importance of Free software to a country like Uganda is not that it is a source of cheap - or even zero cost - software. If Uganda keeps importing software, be it Free or proprietary then it will never be able to build a successful software industry of its own. Imagine a scenario where the government actively promotes Free software by only buying Free software from local suppliers, and not spending money on proprietary American products. Imagine (sorry I'm starting to sound like John Lennon here) if they deployed this throughout all the government offices, and government controlled organisations. If all the schools were mandated to use Free software, so that those leaving school/university were educated in the use of Free software, then business would soon see that it was better for them to use Free software than spend money on expensive American imports that their staff hadn't been trained to use. The companies that innovated the most and gave most back to the Free software community would naturally be the one who won the most contracts, encouraging healthy competition and innovation, leading to better quality software engineers. I can already hear people saying that this is far fetched and will never happen. Before you start to attack me again do some research into what is happening in Brazil, a country that really "gets" Free software, right from the top down. They have created a thriving local software industry that is having a knock on effect throughout the rest of their booming economy. However if even the local LUG is against the principles of software freedom, where people say "I just use whatever the best tool is even if it's proprietary" "apple products are super cool" "Google has made Linux closed-source" etc etc then what hope have we of ever convincing the powers that be to adopt Free software? How many millions of dollars does Uganda spend on imported American software per year? Wouldn't it be better if that was spent on a local software industry? You may say I'm a dreamer but............... :-) Thanks Tim On 8 August 2011 06:07, Francis Musinguzi <[email protected]> wrote: > > > 1. Despite successes, FLOSS still misunderstood, villianized (Is it possible > to make some money?) http://goo.gl/9ZhmY > 2. Katherine Noyes "One of the great things about open source software is > that it doesn't just bring a wealth of benefits to businesses. Rather, by > making low-cost, high-quality software widely available to everyone, it also > has the potential to change lives around the world." http://goo.gl/IPrZJ > Francis, > Coordinator, SimuSync > GridWorX Ltd. > Blog: blog.simusync.com | E-Mail: [email protected] | Facebook > ID: SimuSync | FanPage ID: SimuSync1 | Quora ID: Simu-Sync | Twitter > ID: @SimuSync | Website: www.simusync.com > > _______________________________________________ > The Uganda Linux User Group: http://linux.or.ug > > Send messages to this mailing list by addressing e-mails to: [email protected] > Mailing list archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > Mailing list settings: http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug > To unsubscribe: http://kym.net/mailman/options/lug > > The Uganda LUG mailing list is generously hosted by INFOCOM: > http://www.infocom.co.ug/ > > The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including > attachments if any). The mailing list host is not responsible for them in > any way. > -- WebERP Africa Ltd +447710427049 +256752963327 +255758554413 www.weberpafrica.com _______________________________________________ The Uganda Linux User Group: http://linux.or.ug Send messages to this mailing list by addressing e-mails to: [email protected] Mailing list archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Mailing list settings: http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug To unsubscribe: http://kym.net/mailman/options/lug The Uganda LUG mailing list is generously hosted by INFOCOM: http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The mailing list host is not responsible for them in any way.
_______________________________________________ The Uganda Linux User Group: http://linux.or.ug Send messages to this mailing list by addressing e-mails to: [email protected] Mailing list archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Mailing list settings: http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug To unsubscribe: http://kym.net/mailman/options/lug The Uganda LUG mailing list is generously hosted by INFOCOM: http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The mailing list host is not responsible for them in any way.
