(I do rarely crosspost but this one seems appropriat here; it's from "bYtES For aLL Issue # 5 , January 2000". I mirror the te full text of #5 on my plas as usual. -hc) --------------------quote:-------------- FREE OPERATING SYSTEMS: HAVE YOUR PICK +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: .NET, India's first Internet magazine An India-based group has launched a new Web site that offers users 11 different operating systems, including Linux, and their accompanying documentation. The FreeOS.com site is based in Mumbai, India, and it staunchly opposes the lucrative practice of charging for operating systems. Besides the increasingly popular Linux, other operating systems supported by FreeOS.com include FreeBSD, BPMK, Cynus, FreeDos, Freedows, GNU Hurd, Minix, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and VSTa. While the site offers support for all 11 free operating systems, FreeOS.com says that the vast majority of activity in the market revolves around Linux and will probably remain that way for the forseeable future. Details from Prakash Advani, [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.freeos.com STUDY SHOWS POVERTY BLOCKS SPREAD OF CYBER-BENEFITS +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Info courtesy: Margaret Wertheim / Sunday Age, Australia It is becoming clear that opening up the net to everyone will be a good deal more problematic than much of the rhetoric would have us believe. A report in June by the prestigious Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), entitled The Internet in Developing Countries, stresses that, for most of the world, Internet access remains a rare and costly thing. In Ghana, for example, the cost of an account with Africa Online is $US50 a month, almost twice the average monthly income - and more than twice what it costs for unlimited access in the US. The ACM report notes that in many countries there is a crippling lack of low-cost regional IP (internet provider) backbones. Moreover, in many regions of the world telephone services are still extremely limited; and for billions of people poverty remains an enormous barrier. That point is reinforced by Indian net activist Venkatesh Hariharan, an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Information Technology. Forget logging onto the Internet, he says because two-thirds of the world's people have never made a phone call. -------------------unquote.------------- To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies.
