NACI: Gov't of South Africa Pushes Open Source

GNU lover writes "National Advisory Council on Innovation in South Africa has issued a release concering the use of Open Source and the digital divide." The use of open source in the 3rd/2nd world is one way to get around licensing costs - at least more honest then pirating.

Comments

mars?

[TheQuantumShift]

I think we need to go back to the moon and set up some bases, to better prepare us for mars, and to shut up those idiots who think nasa is in the business of special effects and sound stages. Or maybe turn the ISS into something useful, like a launch pad for some really cool ships or something. Mars would be cool and all, but not with current technology, where it takes months just for a probe to get there and malfunction. And we need some more time to get off our asses and join the rest of the world in the metric system for christ's sake!

Re:mars?

[Winged Cat]

1. Reduce cost to get stuff into space. $10k/lb. to LEO makes everything else too expensive. $100/lb. is apparently achievable even before you get many users (and being reached for by many private efforts today).
   
2. Set up some industry in orbit, or on the Moon, to pay for this. Space tourism, mining, automated construction (of solar power satellites, telescopes, and whatever else people will pay you to build up there)...even with what little we know, there are already potentials for business. More opportunities will likely pop up in the course of setting these up, but the venture capitalists want established opportunities - and those do exist.
   
3. Set up manned habitation. There are people who will gladly pay to, within limits, be research subjects for the long-term effects of space on the average (non-elite-astronaut) human body, especially if you use the results to build things that minimize these effects (for instance, start out with spin-induced artificial gravity for most of the habitat); if you add more devices later, you can then ask for more people to "test" the improvements. Eventually, expand this habitat to be self-sufficient.
   
4. ...and there's your humanity in space. Sit back, and let the distributed (if limited in certain ways) intelligence of the masses work its magic.
   

Dropped "Linux" because the kernel doesn't matter

[yerricde]

Anyone else notice that he's dropped GNU/Linux altogether? Now it's just GNU. No credit given at all to the kernel. I guess it's just not important.

That's because the issues are the same, whether you run GNU/Linux, GNU/Solaris, GNU/Win32, GNU/DOS, or any other port of the GNU userland.

He isn't pro-Free software in the least. He is simply pro-GPL and anti-everything else.

He's pro-free software. He understands that BSD-class licenses (especially for noddy programs under 2 KLOC or for software used in embedded systems), weak copyleft licenses (especially for free clones of common libraries), and GPL-class strong copyleft licenses all have their place.

"Certainly not"...

[mgkimsal2]

He runs into a big problem: not only is the latest software expensive with all manner of bewildering bells and whistles that he does not need, but it doesn't run on such an old machine. What is he to do? Would it be legal to find and use an old copy of the operating system and spreadsheet? "Certainly not", replies his software dealer, and sternly warns him of the fate that awaits users of illegal software copies.

I've got a problem with this scenario. Are we REALLY saying that if I found someone who had a LEGALLY LICENSED copy of Windows 95 from 1995, we could not engage in any sort of transaction to transfer the license (per whatever terms were stated in the Win95 original license) over to me?

Arguing that ANY transfer of license at all is 'illegal' to bolster the 'open source' frenzy strikes me as very shortsighted. It's just not necessary to make up or exaggerate the situation to make the case for open software.

Unenviable position of South Africa

[bushboy]

South Africa finds itself in the unenvieable position of being one of the most stable and prosperous nations in Africa, with a democracy that works.

It's unenvieable because we have to take the responsibility for the rest of Africa and try to somehow clean up the mess it's in, but at the same time, not be seen in the same light as a country like Zimbabwe, our next door neighbour - unfortunately, this is happening anyway !

Open source is a good place to start in Africa, but it's not much use in many countries in Africa if there's no computers, or power !

Lets face it, computers for the population of poorer nations is not really as important as a stable economy and jobs - you can't eat computers !

What is important is getting the government and government departments of those poor nations on track regarding the use of computers to try to make things more efficient - South Africa, which is fairly technologically adept - is in a good position to make this happen. IOW, a smaller undertaking to try to help the infrastructure of poorer countries cope.

Yes, we do have the latest computer hardware and software over here in South Afica and techies who know how to use them :)

So, South Africa should take a leading role in providing cheap computer solutions to poorer nations - good for us ! - it's nice to read something positive about Africa for a change :)