You know, Richard, you are right. It is true, in the longer term, mas OK talaga mag free software. In all ways. We break the dependency on a foreign provider (sa China: they don't want their IT infrastructure to be dependent on a corporation of a potential enemy). The trouble is, dito sa Philippines puro consumers lang tayo. Lakas mag-import! pati bigas ini-import.
So since hanggang consumers lang ang majority ng tao dito, M$ talaga ang pinaka-mainam para sa kanila. It's not the BEST way, pero parang tubig ng niyog yan eh. We have lots of coconut water, but the vast bulk of our consumers drink Coca Cola. Kung magka financial crisis at di na tayo maka-import ng M$ products, i'm sure the uptake of OSS will skyrocket solely due to need. Pero ipapaabot pa ba sa ganun? Tama ka, yung "people's PC" is M$ based kasi pinagkitaan yun nga mga demonyo sa DepEd. wala na tayong magawa dun. No amount of advocacy can outshout Mammon. As for your comment na "the dumb should use M$" well that's not what i meant. i meant that, in the context of being a consumerist, call-center-ish, white-collar-slave-labor of the US role, mas OK talaga mag-M$. kasi naman hanggan dun lang naman ang hangad ng maraming pumapasok sa IT eh. i don't know if that's a bad statement, but i think it's safe to say that EVERYONE on this list has transcended to some degree the basic "i must learn a bazillion buzzwords to become most employable" treadmill. the fact that we're talking about Linux is enough. let's face it --- you need a certain amount of dedication to devote your time to Linux because, life is HARDER with linux. of course it costs zero, but the labor costs... we don't count them kasi hobby o kaya mababa cost of labor dito. pero the cost is still there. someone who just wants to do their accounting stuff, pahihirapan mo sila sa linux? true, di nila kailangan matuto ng iptables. pero anong gagawin mo pag gusto nilang mag-chat sa tatay nila sa Saudi, tapos di umaandar yung webcam when it's plugged in? siguro, if the "people's PC" was something like a Simputer (e.g. fixed hardware platform, na 100% linux compatible, bundled with linux) that would be seamless. i think you can make a "people's PC" for less than $200. Transmeta processor, SDR yung RAM.... ika nga, parang simputer talaga. pero walang gagawa nun dito. there's no initiative for such a developmental thing from private companies. tapos mga demonyo sa gobyerno, syempre ayaw nila nun kasi mababa presyo ( == lower absolute value of scammed funds) plus, mas malaki talaga datung kung idadaan sa usual supplier channels. Definitely, in the long term, mas OK talaga to be free from M$. pero in the short term... there are too many other problems that need to be resolved first. -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
