Interview with Dr. Villanueva

cigarky writes "I think many of us were very impressed by the recent letter of Peruvian Congressman Dr. Edgar David Villanueva Nuñez. Linux Today has a followup interview with more in-depth information."

Comments

Gotta love this guy.

[Limburgher]

Any chance he'd be willing to run for President in the U.S. in 04?

Re:Gotta love this guy.

[cmdr_beeftaco]

Maybe he could get an H1-B visa. It seems likely that there no US citizens that have the skills needed to be Commander-In-Chief.

Beautiful

[inkfox]

Perú's youth continue to approach Villanueva, offering to march in support of the Bill: "It is the youth that needs to drive its creativity, its intelligence, its intellect ... there are many young people that can create their own employment through [the use] of free software."

Beautiful. "there are many young people that can create their own employment" thanks to free software.

When you hear people complaining that free (as in beer) software is going to cost programmers jobs or cut their salary, or that free software will send us into an economic tailspin, remember this: Both free (as in speech) and free (as in beer) software are making technological revolutions possible in places where it just couldn't happen otherwise. And you can bet that we're going to see good stuff (more software!) starting to flow back the other way.

Lets write him in

[techstar25]

If every Slashdot reader wrote him in on the ballot, he would end up with more votes than Ross Perot.

Considering Microsoft's Position on their own OS

[Domasi]

I think this recent post would reasure not only Dr. Edgar David Villanueva Nuñez position but the rest of the Open Source advocates that a secure OS is needed. Would you install a OS when it's creators tell you it is not secure?

Interesting background, little interview

[Jeppe Salvesen]

While the background information on the writing process of his now famous letter is intriguing, as well as the fact that this guy is a lawyes who has been with the OSS crowd for 6 years, I would have liked more eloquence directly from the horses mouth.

What intrigues me about the entire software industry, is that they charge relatively different prices around the work. In Europe, a copy of XP is maybe 1 week of average pay. In inner Africa, a copy of XP runs well into the months. Asking companies there to pay full price is plain ridiculous. When I'm rich and famous at 35, I'll go to Africa to teach them how to unleash the then awe-inspiring power of the Penguin. Hopefully, I'll be many years too late.

Re:Interesting background, little interview

[Lemmy Caution]

I'll ignore the hamfisted, blockheaded admixture of arrogance, ignorance, and crudity that informs your post - the idea of thinking of a continent in such ridiculous terms as you postulate - and answer the question in two very simple ways:

First, Africa is mankind, at least a goodly part of it. So, it benefits mankind by continuing to exist. The fact that you measure its value only by the things it gives to the rest of humanity is like valueing your neighbors only to the extent that they work on your yard.

Second, I will name one thing right off the top of my head: my old linguistics professor, Sam Machombo. He was a very good linguistics professor. Like hundreds of thousands of intelligent, generous, hard-working Africans, he contributed just by being who he was and doing a good job of it.

Interview?

[rot26]

I didn't see an interview.

Priority for Peru OSS support

[originalhack]

Since most of us don't vote in Peru, all of us in the OSS community should pay special attention to any requests for tech assistance from Peruvian sources.

Spread the word.

The Internet is so cool

[sam_handelman]

This is all a real blow to my cynicism.

People say "the internet will change the way the world works!" and I say "yeah, right", because people who say that sort of thing (often involving the non-word "paradigm") don't even know what a packet is. "It's shifted the whole paradigm for the sex movie industry", I say derisively.

Well, this, and by this I mean the whole imbroglio where Dr. Villanueva is now the cause celebre of the open source movement, could never have happened without all that international packet switching, and the culture that has grown up around it, and this is very significant.

This isn't a fake economic event - like stock quotes. This isn't a manufactured cultural event with no social or political relevance - like the pop music we're swapping. This isn't the sophistry of most modern political news which is nothing more than the latest lies to promote your own self interest.

This is real and genuine and the internet has made it possible.

FSF mtg. cancelled

[slow_flight]

Villanueva was once invited to an event in Columbia where he was to meet with the Free Software Foundation's Richard Stallman, and to his great disappointment this event had to be cancelled.

They refused to re-name the country GNU/Columbia.

Re:FSF mtg. cancelled

[jonathanjo]

Villanueva was once invited to an event in Columbia where he was to meet with the Free Software Foundation's Richard Stallman, and to his great disappointment this event had to be cancelled.

Columbia South Carolina or Columbia Maryland? I hope Villanueva meets with Senator Hollings!

And what's Villanueva doing in North America? Don't they have Free Software events in places like Colombia?

Slashdot Interview

[Johnny Mnemonic]

How about a Slashdot interview with this guy? I haven't know many politicians to shy from another couple million eyeballs regarding their pet project, even if it comes from non-constituents.

Re:The Bill

[TrixX]

Try here..

Actually, this is the text of a bill proposed in Argentina, but it is almost identical (to the point of s/Argentina/Peru/g). The free software deffinition used in both is the same.

Fear in Redmond

[theolein]

I don't know if I'm imagining it but everytime Villanueva's name turns up here on /. the anti-OSS trolling increases to a fevered pitch.

It seems as if opponents of this bill are very, very scared of the snowball effect that it could have. Peru is a poor country and is one of many on this earth. While I doubt that many of those countries have leaders that are as interrested in the wellbeing of their populace or as well articulated, I think there would be enough to see the benefits of a law such as this one, especially if it makes a notable difference in the IT landscape in Peru. Certain companies will certainly try to use dubious methods to try to silence efforts such as this, because it leaves them out in the cold, or did anyone think that poor countries had any possibility of expending their IT knowhow in any other manner?

Re:Write YOUR elected reps -- now!

[Elbereth]

Oh yeah, that's going to work.

"Deer Congresman,

Please stop using Micro$uck's software in the federel stuff. GNU/LINUX ROX!! Like that letter in Peru. They got it write!

Sinceerly,
Anonymous Coward

p.s. BAN MICRO$HAFT!!!!"