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Venezuela Goes Open Source
Odinson sent in this news blurb from LinuxToday, reporting that Venezuela has adopted a policy for the use of Open Source software in government wherever possible. Apparently they have practical rather than philosophical motivations: keeping cash in the country and promoting local software development.
Yay! One more country Microsoft has to go after Peru. They're going to have their hands full in no time
Has that argument been tried in other states, like California?
"Why should we send our money to *gasp* Redmond when we can get an equally capable system for substantially less?"
Of course, you could make the same argument about whatever city Red Hat is in. Maybe it's something only people outside the US can make.
This blurb I think is just as significant:
Additionally, the policy also outlines a new Internet access program where all machines would be Linux-based and held under community franchise.
Who am I to blow against the wind? -- Paul Simon
When there's an earthquake in the deep ocean it is seen as only a ripple on the surface.
But as it approaches shallower waters that little ripple can become hundreds of feet tall, decimating everything that stands against it in its path.
I do believe we have seen the first ripples of a slow moving wave....
*grin*
Hugo Chavez thought he had a tenacious enemy when he crossed Big Oil (tm) :-)
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
There are computers in Venezuela? J/K, but it is nice to see linux reaching futher into the MS Empire, though not a very big account for MS I bet, but still one that's news worth I guess.
======
Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish. - Euripides
Similar kind of opinions have been heard here in scandinavia, apparently atleast in Sweden, Denmark and Finland. If you understand finnish, here's the article.
4Literature - Read, write, and discuss your favor
Ooooh I can finally hack together my own version (GPLed naturally) of the infamous Venezuelan Beaver Cheese .
I wear pants.
I have installed Linux on 3 computers in my LAN.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
Is there enough open source software development going on in Venezuela to keep the govt going? I would think they will have to look outside their borders for the majority of their needs.
FoundNews.com - get paid to blog.,
No wonder the US Gov't was so excited about the military coup that almost succeeded there a few months back. I bet THEY would have bought American!
In this case, the Practical reasons for using open source are really just about all of the philosophical anyway. Sure, it's not right to give a large sum of extra money to a company who is just going to stab you in the back, but Microsoft can't do a lot more then take your money. And if you're going to mention their backdoors, if you're really concerned about security, you wouldn't think about using Microsoft anyway.
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
It is surprising that this decision seems to exclude other free licenses such as the BSD. Does this mean that they wont use things like Mozilla (isnt it the NPL?) and FreeBSD? What did they find objectionable about the other licenses?
There is no such thing as luck. Luck is nothing but an absence of bad luck.
When you're rich, the time and sacrifices needed for philosophy are cheap. When you're poor, the practical rules the roost.
Pithy comments aside, this only reinforces what I have come to believe in recent months: that the eventual dominance of Linux/open source is an economic inevitability.
The reasoning behind this is very simple, and has nothing to do with blind zealotry. Capitalism does not tolerate inefficiency. If you can do something better than your competitors, or if you can do the same thing but cheaper, you will have an advantage and the natural selection of the free market will elevate you above the rest.
Linux is more efficient in economic terms. Right now of course, it's "efficiency" is being held back by the number of rough edges that need polishing, the huge resources needed to overcome Microsoft lockin and so on. However, these are becoming less and less all the time. Eventually (like within a few years) Linux will be as good as Windows, as well as compatible with it thanks to the efforts of the wine/samba/OpenOffice/NTFS crews. At that point, you can be better and cheaper at the same time by using it. The result? Market dominance.
It has another advantage as well - multiple vendors. History shows that economics favours systems with multiple vendors: witness Macs vs PCs, or VHS vs Betamax.
Could this be the beginning of the end (of domination) for microsoft? First Peru, then the UK looking at OS solutions, now Venezuala (Did I see something somewhere about an American state going the same way?). The largest avalanches start with but one snowflake...
These could be examples for others to look to when deciding policy. The more that say no to Microsoft, the more likely that others will also say no.
The only worry I have is what the response from Microsoft will be...how much money will they throw at Venezuala to persuade them to change their minds?
demon
-----
Nothing is ever a total loss; it can always serve as a bad example.
MSNBC is reporting that Venezuela's true motives are to save up their money to fund TERRORISM!!! Microsoft has urged the Depts. of Defense and Justice to have a word with the Venezuelan government to strongly suggest that they keep their tax dollars rolling into Redmond, where it will be safe from EVIL-DOERS.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
hey bud
Venezuela is not a state, so it cannot be "tried in other states, like California" it would be, instead, "been tried anywhere here in the states?"
Other note, heard enough Matrix? How about The Animatrix Geez. Time to get a DVD player.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Mozilla is available in several licenses. NPL, MPL, and LGPL. The MPL is pretty nice, NPL pretty restrictive, and LGPL, well you know. :-)
Personally I think they just totally forgot about other licenses.
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
"According to Pérez-Martí, the government and the people of Venezeula were increasingly concerned that over 75 percent of the funds for software licenses went to foreign nations, 20 percent to foreign support agencies, and only 5 percent to Venezuelan programmers. "
I hope other countries take note of this. While I'm a skittish about requiring GPL, GPL certainly seems like it would be perfect for not-so-wealthy nations. And isn't any other nation concerned that the vast majority of their IT infrastructure is controlled by a power hungry corporation in the United States? If I were in a country like say Germany, I'm not sure I'd be happy having my government using Microsoft products that report who knows what, and gives them total privileges to all the computers in the name of "fixing bugs".
A GNU GPL law may be interesting, but if introduced it should be a part of a much larger package, defining a new set of rules regulating the protection of computer programs, hence removing them from traditional copyright protection. See my article on lagom copyright, published by Newsforge.
Just changing the public procurement like this may prove to be fatal to cost and efficiency. I think proprietary code and open code should compete on the same terms. The license is not the only thing defining the efficiency of a certain solution. If openness is a valid demand from a democracy point of view, openness should be introduced in copyright law to make everyone on the market work on the same terms. I do not find it feasible from an efficiency point of view to mandate only one type of license in public procurement.
See also my article on open code in public procurement published by Newsforge.
Regards,
Mikael
Pawlo.com
when you pry it out of my cold dead hands.
Yeah, tell that to Digital (DR-DOS) and dozens of others Microsoft has crushed over the years.
PJRC: Electronic Projects, 8051 Microcontroller Tools
It is surprising that this decision seems to exclude other free licenses such as the BSD. Does this mean that they wont use things like Mozilla (isnt it the NPL?) and FreeBSD? What did they find objectionable about the other licenses?
First, you are I think confusing two separate issues.
1) Open Source software will be used by government wherever possible. This definition includes a superset of free software, and especially includes FreeBSD, Mozilla, the NPL, and other licenses in addition to the GPL.
2) Software developed for the government must be GPLed. Their reasoning is probably something along the lines that public moneys, funding public projects (like government-written, or government funded software) shouldn't be appropriated for personal gain, especially by foreign monopolies that will embrace, extend, and ultimately seek to destroy a competing product.
Not an unreasonable stance for them to take, actually.
The article isn't entirely clear, but from my reading it appears that the government will use free software and open source software wherever possible (of whatever licenses they deem appropriate), proprietary software where they must, but any software developed for the government (presumably by contract, perhaps at times even by government personnel) will be GPLed, with its freedom and accessiblity to the public thereby protected for the duration of the copyright. A damn fine idea IMHO.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
...then we'll only need Argentina and Brazil, and
then we'll have a continent!
I especially like the whenever possible part. Not that I am against Open Source, if anything I am pro Open Source. I am also a big believer in capitolism though, and I don't think that the government should be in any way restricted from using proprietary software if that is what they need. I especially dont think that the government should be restricted to open source where perhaps there is only a proprietary option. It would be a pretty big deal if all state schools and such stated a poicy. A lot more people would be more familiar with Linux, and other open source solutions. I think that maybe there could be layers, like first they would go to the open source comunity, and then if they didn't find a solution go to the small software company, and the last place they would go is the corperations. Otherwise they just circulate the money around at the top, and nothing happens where the money is needed.
GENERATION 25: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social exper
Also, am I the only person who would not put it past Microsoft to surreptiously fund the next anti-Chavez "event"? How exactly did this slip under Microsoft's radar? Especially with their ability to read everyone's email (you did know about that, right?)
The title is misleading. Venezuela is going GPL, not open source. There are presumably a lot of open source apps that cannot be used in Venezuela because they are licenced under terms that are not GPL compatible. I'm assuming that GPL compatible is good enough (I hope).
I usually think in terms of "open source" meaning OSI approved licence. I wonder what the "gaps" are in terms of types of apps that aren't really ready using GPL only. Some of the things that come to mind are: enterprise grade RDBMS, java swing libraries, RDBMS report writer. For that matter, is Apache's licence GPL compatible !? If not, what will they use? Is there an AutoCAD solution? Is there a geocoding solution? What other GPL gaps are out there?
Reread the article:
...all software developed for the government must be licenced under the GPL.
...
Rey also outlined additional details of the plan. Besides the government's GPL requirement, the policy requires that the official accounting application for Venezeula must be a GPL'ed application.
I read it that any open-source software is fine for use (with the exception of accounting, which I'd agree is weird). GPL is just the development license. That's only a problem in that government programers won't be able to have their changes folded back into non-GPL software.
To be fair, very few of Microsoft's competitors could actually do the same thing as Microsoft. Doing the same thing, in most cases, would include being readily available on newly purchased computers, and alas, we can't all have a monopoly.
That being said, Linux does a lot more than just the 'same thing' as Windows in many instances. It offers open source, open standards, more stability and much tighter security. As everyone reading this should know, it has a definite lack of task-specific end-user applications, but that's been steadily becoming less and less of a problem over the past few years.
For Microsoft, the rules are the same, but the opponent is a whole lot more resourceful and dangerous than it ever has been before.
Seriously, I like Solaris, but I think they are circling the drain, because solutions based on failover of cheap boxen will displace the One Omnipotent Box solution.
Please take whatever I say with a huge salt lick.
This is a step in the right direction only if they use BSD and not linux, which is a step backwards in CS history. Can you believe in this day and age that linux still doesn't have a stable vm or fs? Worse, the linux users have been lied to for years that linux 2.x, linux 2.4.x, linux 2.5.x, etc have been stable when, in fact, its vm was not stable under load and ext2fs loses data, prompting the need for ext3fs. linux has set back the state of computing by 10 years. In contrast, FreeBSD has a stable vm and robust well-debugged filesystem. We need to educate the linux population at large that linux is bad.
Microsoft cannot allow Venezuela to do this. If any country switches to Open Source, and it is a success, Microsoft is in deep shit. Other countries would follow the lead, and soon Microsoft would be forced to implement huge price cuts just to have any chance at all.
If this is a success in Venezuela, I believe that in the near future the US Govt will be one of the very few running any version of Windows. Billy and Steve will throw however much money it takes at Washington to keep things that way.
But can they buy off the whole world?
Don't throw your computer out the window, throw the Windows out of your computer!
Today, a PC that is decent for office work is, say $1000 - of which $400 is MS software. Make that almost zero with 90% of the functionality and 99% of the average office workers used functionality and you have an unbeatable deal.
Secondly DR-DOS presumably cost a considerable fraction of the cost of DOS. Linux / Open Office / Mozilla / Samba on a per seat basis costs say $20 as opposed to $400 - that is 5%. That sort of saving is too great too ignore.
Finally, Linux and open source tools have thousands of people working on them and despite disputes between KDE and Gnome and whatnot everyone contributes to the strength of Open source and Linux.
The only thing holding Linux back is network effects from the massive installed Windows base. But that will be overcome with time.
There have been half a dozen or more of these stories of government and large IT sections adopting Linux in areas with thousands of seats. The tide has turned.
You actually know where did you go? FYI, Bogota is the capital city of Colombia, a totally different country...hello?
Besides, all this crap about ancient computers and obsolete software only shows a lame ignorance about south american nations...it's like saying Linux only runs on pcs 'cos I've never seen it running on sparcs or mips.
TO: THE TROOPS
RE: GET MOVING ON VENEZUELA DONATIONS
Hey kids. Just got my desktop machine working again after that last service pack (what a bitch that was, huh?). And what did I see in my daily Linux Encroachment report? Apparently some piss-ant country that we could buy and sell like it was a stick of bubble gum is mandating open source software in government. How did we miss this one? Peru, Venezulela, I get them all mixed up anyway. But you know what this means! Pack your bags, it's time for a field trip!
I figure 10,000 brand new PCs for the schools, pre-loaded with Windows XP and Word, plus a nice plaque and a fruit basket, that should be enough to get them to drop this stupid idea.
And this time, let's be sure that the blue screens start coming up in about 8 months. I think Venezuala will be able to afford the Win2K upgrades we'll offer them to fix the problem.
Get moving! This one should be even easier than ol' Meheeko was.
xoxox,
BillG
The LinuxToday article originates in an interview in L@ Red (Spanish only). Nice read.
Well, he normally DOES visit places that stop using MS software...
Bill Gates visits Peru
Are there educated people in US schools? Oh wait...yes, but they all come from other nations. Anyway, I agree it's good to see people are starting to put their fears aside and embracing Open Source.
Why does it matter what the government runs? With the standard level of speed, efficiency, and effectiveness that governments normally operate at, they could run systems built by mentally challenged monkeys without any noticeable difference (I think they are actually testing a similar systems with state DMVs). Heck, I'm all for developing a free, open source OS that keeps the government from getting any work done at all.
First of all, the announcement said that applications developed for the government would need to be licensed under the GPL. Since the government is footing the bill, they should be able to pick the license. The government can still use software developed under other licenses, they just won't accept programming contracts from developers who are unwilling to license the software under the GPL.
And yes, there are "gaps" in what Free Software can do. However, instead of spending money on expensive foreign software Venezuela is apparently planning on building their own development community. It almost certainly would be cheaper for Venezuela to build their own applications than to pay expensive U.S. programmers to do so. Labor, even highly skilled labor, is much less expensive in South America.
So many posters obviously haven't read the article. As the parent states, the government will use Open Source (be it BSD, GPL, etc license) but software developed by the government will be GPL (according to the article).
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
In Peru the policy for open source was dropped dued to failures in open source as MANDATORY and to microsoft's lobbies
When are they going to send the US Ambassador to have a little... armtwisting^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hdiscussion (yeah, that's the ticket, discussion!) session with Venezuelan honchos?
And when will MS "donate" a few zillion dollars in licenses to Venezuela?
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
I suspect a big reason why Microsoft grew as fast as it did was folks ran software from work at home. It was easy to take a single copy of Office 6.0-97 and install it everywhere. Compliance happened, but it was because they were 'doing the right thing' rather than forced by the software. I've read speculation that ID's success was due to the enormous number of folks installing, generating a buzz that got the folks who were going to pay to go with the leader rather than those who tried to protect every sale with goofy copy protection that just does not work very well for those who paid.
Now that XP - Office and OS - make casual copying difficult, I wonder how fast folks will transition. Often stuff gets installed first, legal details second. That seems to be fading... I won't touch XP for my work or personal equipment, and I don't see very much in my dealings with corporate America either. 2K, lots... but little XP. Better chance of finding win95 on the box out there.
Anyhow, when you do it now, you pay. You have to think about what this thing is going to cost. Less hiding, playing OEM games, and avoiding the $300+/box/year they are going to sock you with. That adds up whether it's a small city department, school, whatever. Of course that one Linux CD will work at home and office. Not perfect, but getting there....
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
Free is a very good price - especially when TOTALLY BROKE. Nice coup for Linux and all that, but the honest truth is that their economy is shrinking 10% a year and they couldn't afford M$ if they wanted it...
I find is curious that people keep making this distinction, as though the two have little relation to one another. Surely the one of the tenets of the philosophy of Free Software is to allow users to have control over the source so they aren't forced to accept the word of one or more unaccountable parties? Is that not practical? Yet it is a philosophy. The more commentators keep making this bizarre seperation, the more people will be led to believe that the GPL is some pipedream license, not applicable in the "real world". It's time to realise that the GPL "is" practical, and that the philosophy is Free Software puts the practicality of using software high in its list of concerns, being inherently linked to the freedom of users.
I use some time running the openchallenge. I would like to get city/government organisations utilize it as well - by posting requests for open source based support for some protocols/interfaces they use for example ofcourse at the same time they would publish the specifications of these protocols/interfaces. How should I approach them, any ideas?
I personally would dot the i's and cross the t's a bit different, but a pragmatist view of the fight in California by Bruce Perens. A good, well thought out read.
Am I the only one reminded of this incident. Whenever politics replaces reason as the basis for making decisions disaster awaits. In this case instead of asking , what tools are the best to solve the problem, the government will have limited itself to the mercies of whatever GPL software is out there. Even if it is not the proper tool to solve the problem.
For instance, KDE Linux is absolutely horrible on the desktop, at least 5 years behind Microsoft. It is hard to configure, has no common usability standards,copy/paste doesn't work, and a host of other problems. It has some real nice features like right clicking for a stay on top window but it is not better then Microsoft for a desktop work setting for your average user. (Please note that there are many instances where Linux is a better choice then the Windows alternative, servers and embedded software for example.)
Finding and configuring a different windows manager for your needs, GPL or not, is what a reasonable person does. Researching and making an informed decision where the license scheme and open source status is but one of many factors is also what a reasonable person does. Selecting a poor substitute and forcing your beliefs on others is what someone who has replaced reason with fanaticism does.
In a truly free computer environment a person would have the freedom to install Linux,Solaris, FreeBSD or Windows XP to suit their needs. What does trading one enforced monopoly for another gain us?
Slightly dodgy web translation ;) ) of unix including FreeBSD. The interview also mentions that they are likely to go for Debian or Latinus (local distro). Interesting read and rather more illuminating than the article.
No mention of GPL being the only license allowed (surely not a journalist embellishing the facts?). They mention other flavours (I'm English hence the u
Open Source Community and local business leaders to government ..
"You mean we can support our countries economy, eliminate the majority of software cost, potentially improve the quality of desktops for Spanish speakers AND be in full complience with copyright law so we can set an example for the rest of the country and world ?"
"Cool"
Destined to be the next "Silicon Valley," Venezualans today passed a law which will attract elite open-source developers like a moth to a bug-zapper. The abundance of local coffee is said be another bonus. Programmers are busily packing their bags in preparation for the mass exodus.
Clickety Click
Fine. A test to see what happens to a country that does this. Smart countries considering such a plan will hold off to "wait and see" what kind of impact this has. Unfortunately, the very nature of long term effects is that they will take... well... a long term to take effect. The short-term impacts (learning curve, etc.) are already well known. However, at least a few years from now we can say "let's look at V and see what people are saying".
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
You've still got us in a bind on the desktop but everyday you're grip grows weaker. The tide is against you. You're money, the influence it buys you, and the power you enjoyed will ebb slowly away.
The powers that put you in place at first are no longer with you.
Just to offer more clarification on the issue, since I attended the event. On August 28, the Venezuelan government approved a resolution requiring Open Standards for all govermnent data storage, Open Source Software solutions for all new developments, and Free Software throughout. The announcement was made at a public event attended by local developers (and some Microsoft representatives!). The initiative is a joint effort of the several Ministries: Planning & Development, Science & Technology, Production & Commerce, the National Center for Information Technologies (CNTI), and the local Telecomunications comptroller, CONATEL. The local head of the Autonomous Intellectual Property System (SAPI) was also present, and spoke about how it ACTUALLY the policy is defending property and copyright issues. All sites are spanish-only, so use Babel. No press releases have been forthcoming from the venezuelan Ministry of Planning and Development yet, whose head, Felipe Perez-Marti (Ph.D. in Economics, University of Chicago, 1985), is a known advocate of the OSS model. Perez-Marti was borrowed from the prestigious IESA (Institute for Higher Management Studies), and is believed to be the only cabinet minister in the Americas (including the U.S. !!!) to use open source software on daily basis from his Linux laptop. He even reads Slashdot everyday !!!. Several key public universities (USB, UCV, ULA) are offering technical know-how, with the help of local developers and the venezuelan linux user group, VELUG. All licences (GPL, BSD, LGPL, etc.) are allowable for software use in this model, but GPL will be the norm for all software developed and paid for the venezuelan govenment.
The catchy slogan for this resolution is "Free software where possible, propietary solutions where unavoidable". As sign that new thinking is in the way, it was also announced at the event that SIGECOFF, the state-owned financial and accounting system used by all public entities, will be open-sourced, in an effort to bolster government transparency and developer support.
Local license resellers are fuming, since they think themselves as an "Industry" (?) and not as importers. Most of the market IS NOT the government, but the oil company PDVSA (second in the world), who is the largest software buyer in the country. The resolution only applies to government contracted software, and does not regulate the private sector. An army of high level Microsoft executives is expected to arrive at the country next week, with an expected Per-like offer donation (or, at has been cynically suggested, join another Coup d'Etat attempt against President Hugo Chavez.)
bought a used Timex-Sinclair last year is no reason to get all huffy about it.
KFG
Not sure that it is. GJC
Gregory Casamento
## Chief Maintainer for GNUstep
It sounds great for a poor nation wanting to get an infrastructure on the cheap, sure. But what if they ever want to export software? Aren't they scrod?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
From the Associated Press wire:
August 29, 2002:
In a stunning move with far-reaching global implications, the Bush Administration added the South American nation of Venezuela to the Axis of Evil. When asked why the sudden change was made, Ari Fleischer responded "As President Bush said, "You're either with us, or you're against us.", and Venezuela has sided with the pirates and terrorists of the world by allowing Weapons of Mass IP Destruction into its governmental computing systems.
Reports from inside sources are confirming that the decision was made after careful consultation with key members of the IP industry who explained that Venezuela released an IP-destroying Pac-Man virus into its governmental IT infrastructure and now any IP that gets sent to Venezuela is being sucked into a giant vortex of piracy and thievery!
When asked whether or not the US would invade Venezuela, Fleischer responded "We _were_ concerned about Iraq, and we were going to invade, but Iraq has to be put on the back burner for a while. Iraq's physical weapons like nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons are dangerous and a threat to world security, but they can ONLY destroy all life as we know it! An IP-destroying Pac-Man virus could destroy all of CAPITALISM as we know it! Now what's worse: being dead or having to be a long-haired hippy who has to WORK for a living doing something that's directly beneficial to society. So, to answer your question: Venezuela will be pockmarked with giant glowing craters within the next 72 hours."
Reports are coming in from Norfolk and Guantanamo Naval Air Station that the ships of the Atlantic fleet are preparing to leave, and three nuclear submarines have passed through the Panama Canal within the last 12 hours, leaving little doubt that a serious military buildup is occuring.
Best. Comment. Ever. Enjoy!
to be solved by a government. So is internal security.
All MS has to do to compete on an even field is give Venezuela the source code and let them compile it for free.
*That* is the way the free market works.
If Venezuela is unhappy with a particular interface they have tons of local coders, spending their money in the local economy, perfectly willing and capable of doing the job, and ultimately benefiting us all.
*All* ip eventually becomes "worthless," i.e., free, sooner or later. That's a simple fact that the purveyors of ip have yet to work into their business models.
KFG
Is this a true conversion to Open-source or are they playing the game someone suggested in the last Peru article:
I am a network engineer who by way of circumstance am a Colombian citizen. Grandfather was from Spain and my father was born there. I was born in the US, but have both citizenships.
I lived in Colombia for the past two years before coming home. And Colombia and Venezuela are both full of computets. All kinds. Though SCO is a pretty popular OS over there. Many old school cobol accounting apps running on it.
ANYWAY. I do not think MS is too worried about losing Venezuela. When you go to a computer store in either country they give you windows free with the pc. Not a licnesed copy. They give you the cost of the liscense, you can get windows with a liscense or without. Who the fuck is gonna choose to pay more money? Not Latin Americans. They gotta pinch pennies. And if they got the money they will not do it anyway.
If you buy that liscsense, you better call MS from the store and verify it is valid, cause it is probably hoked up anyway.
I installed several large networks and ordered Dell PC's for the warranties and I could be sure I was getting the licenses legally. And I did. All windows and my big Red Hat Server.
You think Chavez would actually pay Gates? With latins get the money up front. You think if Chavez used pirate software, gates could do something about it? NO. Venezuela is an entity for itself.
This might look like a win for us but is just clever spin from our community.
Venezuela could care less about its systems. What you got is some good sysadmins whispering free in Politicians ears, makes the Politicians look good, like they were paying for software anyway.
In those countries software, music piracy is an accepted norm. You can buy burned cd's in shopping centers on the streets. They will chip your playstation while you wait. This announcement will not garner any interest there. People are too worried about food and shelter.
And yeah there are nice areas. For the privileged few. The top 5 percent. Yeah I two ISDN lines in my apartment. And the montly cost would have fed a family of five.
Show me where opensource benefits latin america. Medical records, state agencies, but until then this announcement has all the weight of Pam Anderson announcing her new fashion line.
Puto
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Two arguments against keep getting posted:
1) Venezuela doesn't matter. Only a few computers; the people know little about technology.
2) It's wrong for government to mandate software, it should be freedom of choice.
First, I have to say I'm stunned that anyone would post such nonsense.
One, Venezuela has some very, very intellectual and highly intelligent people. They are in no way "backwards" or "technically illiterate". Are theere peasants in Venezuela? Of course. There are also illiterates in the USA, get over it.
Two, government mandating software is wrong? Are you peope living in the USA? Have you ever HEARD of the USA? The government and military of the USA mandate Microsoft products almost across the board. Nearly any company you could get a job at has strict policies to use Microsoft solutions only. The largest, most powerful government in the world is mandating Microsoft products nearly universally, in both the private and public sectors, and has dragged it's heels on solving the problem through legal means for God knows how many years. So, don't yap when a single country chooses freedom. As an American, it's sickening for me to hear that argument. It's nonsense.
STFU.
Treatment, not tyranny. End the drug war and free our American POWs.
See my user info for links.
Govt may choose Linux as platform for official computers By Naveed Ahmad ISLAMABAD: While the government continues to engage the Microsoft Corporation in dialogue to seek exceptional discounts for making its software as platform for official operating systems, a recent notification suggest that the stage is set to adopt Linux instead. "Linux is going to be the cornerstone of this initiative, as it is world over the Open Source movement," said an official correspondence, confirming its decision to replace the pirated Windows-based systems already in use in the government offices. The ministry explains: "Open Source is a global information technology phenomenon that brings the benefits of using and developing cutting edge software technology to all." Open Source software frees economically deprived entities from the burden of resorting to software piracy for their genuine software need. "Since the government of Pakistan is committing itself to the reduction of piracy and the protection of intellectual property rights, a programme to make Open Source technology indigenous in the country is strongly needed," said the official notification circulated to the forum members. The process of making Linux and Open Source technologies indigenous has to follow the Open Source model itself. "Hence the Linux task Force is being established consisting of volunteers with the desire and capability to participate in the process". The notification explained professionals in the Task Force would also come out with R&D programmes for creating government-funded projects to create user-friendly client-server software, training strategies, usage in the development of applications. The government plans to form various sub-groups under the umbrella of the Linux Task Force, which would contribute by initiating various inventive projects in different critical areas with regard to Linux. The newly formed body will also "help in formulating policies and guidelines which in turn will create opportunities for Pakistani people in the field of Linux". The task force will hold meetings, seminars and conferences to "propagate and educate the user community at large". Policy-makers, technocrats and technical experts from various software houses will participate in such programmes to bring awareness of Linux and its usefulness among the layman class, said the official document. The ministry hopes that the professionals associated in the task force would pick up various threads to perform various key activities to engage their professionalism to deal with manoeuvring productive activities for achieving ultimate goals of Linux. Salman Ansari explained in the notification that the initiative has roots in several discussions on the issue of protection of intellectual property rights and adoption of open source as a national strategy. The government believes that this would "provide a basis for creating a skill set to enable our people to do original work, create a pool of Linux expertise and get into the real nuts and bolts issues like embedded software using the Linux platform. Source: http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/aug2002-daily/29-08 -2002/metro/i1.htm
Oops, always preview before submit
8 -2002/metro/i1.htm
------------------------
Govt may choose Linux as platform for official computers
By Naveed Ahmad
ISLAMABAD: While the government continues to engage the Microsoft Corporation in dialogue to seek exceptional discounts for making its software as platform for official operating systems, a recent notification suggest that the stage is set to adopt Linux instead.
"Linux is going to be the cornerstone of this initiative, as it is world over the Open Source movement," said an official correspondence, confirming its decision to replace the pirated Windows-based systems already in use in the government offices.
The ministry explains: "Open Source is a global information technology phenomenon that brings the benefits of using and developing cutting edge software technology to all." Open Source software frees economically deprived entities from the burden of resorting to software piracy for their genuine software need. "Since the government of Pakistan is committing itself to the reduction of piracy and the protection of intellectual property rights, a programme to make Open Source technology indigenous in the country is strongly needed," said the official notification circulated to the forum members.
The process of making Linux and Open Source technologies indigenous has to follow the Open Source model itself. "Hence the Linux task Force is being established consisting of volunteers with the desire and capability to participate in the process".
The notification explained professionals in the Task Force would also come out with R&D programmes for creating government-funded projects to create user-friendly client-server software, training strategies, usage in the development of applications.
The government plans to form various sub-groups under the umbrella of the Linux Task Force, which would contribute by initiating various inventive projects in different critical areas with regard to Linux. The newly formed body will also "help in formulating policies and guidelines which in turn will create opportunities for Pakistani people in the field of Linux".
The task force will hold meetings, seminars and conferences to "propagate and educate the user community at large". Policy-makers, technocrats and technical experts from various software houses will participate in such programmes to bring awareness of Linux and its usefulness among the layman class, said the official document.
The ministry hopes that the professionals associated in the task force would pick up various threads to perform various key activities to engage their professionalism to deal with manoeuvring productive activities for achieving ultimate goals of Linux.
Salman Ansari explained in the notification that the initiative has roots in several discussions on the issue of protection of intellectual property rights and adoption of open source as a national strategy. The government believes that this would "provide a basis for creating a skill set to enable our people to do original work, create a pool of Linux expertise and get into the real nuts and bolts issues like embedded software using the Linux platform.
Source: http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/aug2002-daily/29-0
I doubt the veracity of that translation and the reference to "Open Source" in the Slashdot headline. The multiple references to "la filosofía del código libre" sure doesn't sound like a reference to "Open Source". It sounds like the speaker is talking about "the philosophy of Free Software"; an older movement with a different philosophy than the Open Source movement. In order to fully understand what is being said I need to understand the context in which these cognates appear.
Given the letter to Microsoft by Congressman Villanueva which skillfully described Free Software to a Microsoft representative, and the number of Slashdot participants who misinterpreted that letter as endorsing "Open Source", I'm not eager to take Slashdot's critique at face value. Also I know how some Open Source movement supporters like to refer to the GNU GPL in the context of the Open Source movement even though that reference misstates the authorship and intent of the license (the GNU GPL was written over a decade before that movement existed and does not express the motivations behind the Open Source movement). Therefore I am curious to read a translation of the interview written by a human being who is familiar with the issues involved.
Digital Citizen
In a few years Microsoft right or wrong, is set to drop all backwords compatibility. That means Office X Netscape X and all of your products will no longer work without new versions. Now those of us who have used NAV, Ghost, etc come to expect this from our System utilities. But for the first time MS is planning a complete break with all legacy products and code. Imagine the Mac OS X debute but without the Classic environment. Now imagine when MS takes is 90% desktop market share and does the same thing. Hopefully by then those fucktards in Washington won't have made Linux illegal and ISV's will actually be making software for it. Adobe and Intuit I'm looking at you.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
Now the 2% of the population in Venezuela, who own 98% of the wealth can gain an extra few dollars becaues government needs even LESS money.
From what I hear, Venezuela is one of the most corrupt and screwed up countries on earth. They have SO much wealth, but it's in the hands of a few rediculously wealthy people.
Plus they chased out all the gringos... who were doing nothing but adding to the economy.
There are FAR, FAR more important issues in venezuela than whether or not the government adopts open source.
Just how was that offtopic? See the thread that I replied to. Screw you!
Does this mean the U.S. government will bomb Venezuela?
Hope everything goes well, I'm sure there are thousands on slashdot alone who would be happy to help in any way they could. Me being one of them.
-- Note: If you don't agree with me, don't bother replying. I won't read it.
I dunno. So far, in the quest for "world domination", Open Source is behind but coming up fast.
Plus, MS and Open Source are both looking for certain threshhold percentage user levels taht they need to become extremely powerful. If MS has about 90% user base in a market, they can wield monopoly powers, which they've used with great success in the past. The GPL also needs a certain threshhold, to the point where it becomes a major drawback *not* to use the GPL. At that point, more people start joining, which furthers the effect, producing a landslide. And the GPL required threshhold is much, much lower -- I'd estimate that if 10% of the users out there are using GPL software that Microsoft doesn't really have a prayer.
May we never see th
Bill Gates sold about 23 million shares of M$ today.
Gates William H III, Chmn of Brd, Proposes Sale of 1,000,000 Microsoft Corp Shar 8/30/02 1:54 PM
Gates William H III, Chmn of Brd, Proposes Sale of 1,000,000 Microsoft Corp Shar 8/30/02 1:49 PM
Gates William H III, Chmn of Brd, Sells 7,000,000 Microsoft Corp Shares 8/30/02 1:37 PM
Gates William H III, Off, Dir & Ben Own, Sells 1,993,700 Microsoft Corp Shares 8/30/02 1:37 PM
Gates William H III, Chmn of Brd, Sells 999,400 Microsoft Corp Shares 8/30/02 1:37 PM
Gates William H III, Chmn of Brd, Sells 2,000,003 Microsoft Corp Shares 8/30/02 1:36 PM
Gates William H III, Chmn of Brd, Sells 10,000,000 Microsoft Corp Shares 8/30/02 1:36 PM
Probably just diversifying his portfolio or funding some charity or ???
Hey, why that comment got a score of 1? The comments is totally troll!!!
To paraphrase Fort's old woman : "It's trolls all the way down"!
WWEND?
This reminds me of the Domino Theory as the USA applied it to SE Asia in the 1960's, as the main excuse to go into Vietnam.
Speaking of The Domino Theory: Did you notice the list of related stories?
Linux Journal: Pakistan Government Looks to the Linux Users Group(Jul 15, 2002)
Update: Linux Bill Introduced in Finland(Jun 18, 2002)
Update: Ending Microsoft FUD: An Interview with Peruvian Congressman Villanueva(May 21, 2002)
GNU.org.pe: Peruvian Congressman's Open Letter to Microsoft(May 07, 2002)
Enterprise Linux Today: Venezuelan Bank Marks Major Financial Deployment of Linux for S/390(May 03, 2001)
Looks like a row of dominoes to me. B-)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
It has come to my attention that the entire Linux community is a hotbed of so called 'alternative sexuality,' which includes anything from hedonistic orgies to homosexuality to pedophilia.
/anus, but there are others. Militant fags even say 'there is no /opt mount point' because for these dirty perverts faggotry is not optional but a way of life.
What better way of demonstrating this than by looking at the hidden messages contained within the names of some of Linux's most outspoken advocates:
Linus Torvalds is an anagram of slit anus or VD 'L,' clearly referring to himself by the first initial.
Richard M. Stallman, spokespervert for the Gaysex's Not Unusual 'movement' is an anagram of mans cram thrill ad.
Alan Cox is barely an anagram of anal cox which is just so filthy and unchristian it unnerves me.
I'm sure that Eric S. Raymond, composer of the satanic homosexual propaganda diatribe The Cathedral and the Bizarre, is probably an anagram of something queer, but we don't need to look that far as we know he's always shoving a gun up some poor little boy's rectum. Update: Eric S. Raymond is actually an anagram for secondary rim and cord in my arse. It just goes to show you that he is indeed queer.
Update the Second: It is also documented that Evil Sicko Gaymond is responsible for a nauseating piece of code called Fetchmail, which is obviously sinister sodomite slang for 'Felch Male' -- a disgusting practise. For those not in the know, 'felching' is the act performed by two perverts wherein one sucks their own post-coital ejaculate out of the other's rectum. In fact, it appears that the dirty Linux faggots set out to undermine the good Republican institution of e-mail, turning it into 'e-male.'
As far as Richard 'Master' Stallman goes, that filthy fudge-packer was actually quoted on leftist commie propaganda site Salon.com as saying the following: 'I've been resistant to the pressure to conform in any circumstance,' he says. 'It's about being able to question conventional wisdom,' he asserts. 'I believe in love, but not monogamy,' he says plainly.
And this isn't a made up troll bullshit either! He actually stated this tripe, which makes it obvious that he is trying to politely say that he's a flaming homo slut!
Speaking about 'flaming,' who better to point out as a filthy chutney ferret than Slashdot's very own self-confessed pederast Jon Katz. Although an obvious deviant anagram cannot be found from his name, he has already confessed, nay boasted of the homosexual perversion of corrupting the innocence of young children. To quote from the article linked:
'I've got a rare kidney disease,' I told her. 'I have to go to the bathroom a lot. You can come with me if you want, but it takes a while. Is that okay with you? Do you want a note from my doctor?'
Is this why you were touching your penis in the cinema, Jon? And letting the other boys touch it too?
We should also point out that Jon Katz refers to himself as 'Slashdot's resident Gasbag.' Is there any more doubt? For those fortunate few who aren't aware of the list of homosexual terminology found inside the Linux 'Sauce Code,' a 'Gasbag' is a pervert who gains sexual gratification from having a thin straw inserted into his urethra (or to use the common parlance, 'piss-pipe'), then his homosexual lover blows firmly down the straw to inflate his scrotum. This is, of course, when he's not busy violating the dignity and copyright of posters to Slashdot by gathering together their postings and publishing them en masse to further his twisted and manipulative journalistic agenda.
Sick, disgusting antichristian perverts, the lot of them.
In addition, many of the Linux distributions (a 'distribution' is the most common way to spread the faggots' wares) are run by faggot groups. The Slackware distro is named after the 'Slack-wear' fags wear to allow easy access to the anus for sexual purposes. Furthermore, Slackware is a close anagram of claw arse, a reference to the homosexual practise of anal fisting. The Mandrake product is run by a group of French faggot satanists, and is named after the faggot nickname for the vibrator. It was also chosen because it is an anagram for dark amen and ram naked, which is what they do.
Another 'distro,' (abbrieviated as such because it sounds a bit like 'Disco,' which is where homosexuals preyed on young boys in the 1970s), is Debian, an anagram of in a bed, which could be considered innocent enough (after all, a bed is both where we sleep and pray), until we realise what other names Debian uses to describe their foul wares. 'Woody' is obvious enough, being a term for the erect male penis, glistening with pre-cum. But far sicker is the phrase 'Frozen Potato' that they use. This filthy term, again found in the secret homosexual 'Sauce Code,' refers to the solo homosexual practice of defecating into a clear polythene bag, shaping the turd into a crude approximation of the male phallus, then leaving it in the freezer overnight until it becomes solid. The practitioner then proceeds to push the frozen 'potato' up his own rectum, squeezing it in and out until his tight young balls erupt in a screaming orgasm.
And Red Hat is secret homo slang for the tip of a penis that is soaked in blood from a freshly violated underage ringpiece.
The fags have even invented special tools to aid their faggotry! For example, the 'supermount' tool was devised to allow deeper penetration, which is good for fags because it gives more pressure on the prostate gland. 'Automount' is used, on the other hand, because Linux users are all fat and gay, and need to mount each other automatically.
The depths of their depravity can be seen in their use of 'mount points.' These are, plainly speaking, the different points of penetration. The main one is obviously
More evidence is in the fact that Linux users say how much they love `man`, even going so far as to say that all new Linux users (who are in fact just innocent heterosexuals indoctrinated by the gay propaganda) should try out `man`. In no other system do users boast of their frequent recourse to a man.
Other areas of the system also show Linux's inherit gayness. For example, people are often told of the 'FAQ,' but how many innocent heterosexual Windows users know what this actually means. The answer is shocking: Faggot Anal Quest: the voyage of discovery for newly converted fags!
Even the title 'Slashdot' originally referred to a homosexual practice. Slashdot of course refers to the popular gay practice of blood-letting. The Slashbots, of course are those super-zealous homosexuals who take this perversion to its extreme by ripping open their anuses, as seen on the site most popular with Slashdot users, the depraved work of Satan, http://www.eff.org/.
The editors of Slashdot also have homosexual names: 'Hemos' is obvious in itself, being one vowel away from 'Homos.' But even more sickening is 'Commander Taco' which sounds a bit like 'Commode in Taco,' filthy gay slang for a pair of spreadeagled buttocks that are caked with excrement. (The best form of lubrication, they insist.) Sometimes, these 'Taco Commodes' have special 'Salsa Sauce' (blood from a ruptured rectum) and 'Cheese' (rancid flakes of penis discharge) toppings. And to make it even worse, Slashdot runs on Apache!
The Apache server, whose use among fags is as prevalent as AIDS, is named after homosexual activity -- as everyone knows, popular faggot band, the Village People, featured an Apache Indian, and it is for him that this gay program is named.
And that's not forgetting the use of patches in the Linux fag world -- patches are used to make the anus accessible for repeated anal sex even after its rupture by a session of fisting.
To summarise: Linux is gay. 'Slash -- Dot' is the graphical description of the space between a young boy's scrotum and anus. And BeOS is for hermaphrodites and disabled 'stumpers.'
FEEDBACK
What worries me is how much you know about what gay people do. I'm scared I actually read this whole thing. I think this post is a good example of the negative effects of Internet usage on people. This person obviously has no social life anymore and had to result to writing something as stupid as this. And actually take the time to do it too. Although... I think it was satire.. blah.. it's early. -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot
Well, the only reason I know all about this is because I had the misfortune to read the Linux 'Sauce code' once. Although publicised as the computer code needed to get Linux up and running on a computer (and haven't you always been worried about the phrase 'Monolithic Kernel'?), this foul document is actually a detailed and graphic description of every conceivable degrading perversion known to the human race, as well as a few of the major animal species. It has shocked and disturbed me, to the point of needing to shock and disturb the common man to warn them of the impending homo-calypse which threatens to engulf our planet.
You must work for the government. Trying to post the most obscene stuff in hopes that slashdot won't be able to continue or something, due to legal woes. If i ever see your ugly face, i'm going to stick my fireplace poker up your ass, after it's nice and hot, to weld shut that nasty gaping hole of yours. -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot
Doesn't it give you a hard-on to imagine your thick strong poker ramming it's way up my most sacred of sphincters? You're beyond help, my friend, as the only thing you can imagine is the foul penetrative violation of another man. Are you sure you're not Eric Raymond? The government, being populated by limp-wristed liberals, could never stem the sickening tide of homosexual child molesting Linux advocacy. Hell, they've given NAMBLA free reign for years!
you really should post this logged in. i wish i could remember jebus's password, cuz i'd give it to you. -- mighty jebus, Slashdot
Thank you for your kind words of support. However, this document shall only ever be posted anonymously. This is because the 'Open Sauce' movement is a sham, proposing homoerotic cults of hero worshipping in the name of freedom. I speak for the common man. For any man who prefers the warm, enveloping velvet folds of a woman's vagina to the tight puckered ringpiece of a child. These men, being common, decent folk, don't have a say in the political hypocrisy that is Slashdot culture. I am the unknown liberator.
ROLF LAMO i hate linux FAGGOTS -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot
We shouldn't hate them, we should pity them for the misguided fools they are... Fanatical Linux zeal-outs need to be herded into camps for re-education and subsequent rehabilitation into normal heterosexual society. This re-education shall be achieved by forcing them to watch repeats of Baywatch until the very mention of Pamela Anderson causes them to fill their pants with healthy heterosexual jism.
Actually, that's not at all how scrotal inflation works. I understand it involves injecting sterile saline solution into the scrotum. I've never tried this, but you can read how to do it safely in case you're interested. (Before you moderate this down, ask yourself honestly -- who are the real crazies -- people who do scrotal inflation, or people who pay $1000+ for a game console?) -- double_h, Slashdot
Well, it just goes to show that even the holy Linux 'sauce code' is riddled with bugs that need fixing. (The irony of Jon Katz not even being able to inflate his scrotum correctly has not been lost on me.) The Linux pervert elite already acknowledge this, with their queer slogan: 'Given enough arms, all rectums are shallow.' And anyway, the PS2 sucks major cock and isn't worth the money. Intellivision forever!
dude did u used to post on msnbc's nt bulletin board now that u are doing anti-gay posts u also need to start in with anti-black stuff too c u in church -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot
For one thing, whilst Linux is a cavalcade of queer propaganda masquerading as the future of computing, NT is used by people who think nothing better of encasing their genitals in quick setting plaster then going to see a really dirty porno film, enjoying the restriction enforced onto them. Remember, a wasted arousal is a sin in the eyes of the Catholic church. Clearly, the only god-fearing Christian operating system in existence is CP/M -- The Christian Program Monitor. All computer users should immediately ask their local pastor to install this fine OS onto their systems. It is the only route to salvation.
Secondly, this message is for every man. Computers know no colour. Not only that, but one of the finest websites in the world is maintained by a Black Man . Now fuck off you racist donkey felcher.
And don't forget that slashdot was written in Perl, which is just too close to 'Pearl Necklace' for comfort.... oh wait; that's something all you heterosexuals do.... I can't help but wonder how much faster the trolls could do First-Posts on this site if it were redone in PHP... I could hand-type dynamic HTML pages faster than Perl can do them. -- phee, Slashdot
Although there is nothing unholy about the fine heterosexual act of ejaculating between a woman's breasts, squirting one's load up towards her neck and chin area, it should be noted that Perl (standing for Pansies Entering Rectums Locally) is also close to 'Pearl Monocle,' 'Pearl Nosering,' and the ubiquitous 'Pearl Enema.'
One scary thing about Perl is that it contains hidden homosexual messages. Take the following code: LWP::Simple -- It looks innocuous enough, doesn't it? But look at the line closely: There are two colons next to each other! As Larry 'Balls to the' Wall would openly admit in the Perl Documentation, Perl was designed from the ground up to indoctrinate it's programmers into performing unnatural sexual acts -- having two colons so closely together is clearly a reference to the perverse sickening act of 'colon kissing,' whereby two homosexual queers spread their buttocks wide, pressing their filthy torn sphincters together. They then share small round objects like marbles or golfballs by passing them from one rectum to another using muscle contraction alone. This is also referred to in programming 'circles' as 'Parameter Passing.'
And PHP stands for Perverted Homosexual Penetration. Didn't you know?
Thank you for your valuable input on this. I am sure you will be never forgotten. BTW: Did I mention that this could be useful in terraforming Mars? Mars rulaa. -- Eimernase, Slashdot
Well, I don't know about terraforming Mars, but I do know that homosexual Linux Advocates have been probing Uranus for years.
That's inspiring. Keep up the good work, AC. May God in his wisdom grant you the strength to bring the plain honest truth to this community, and make it pure again. Yours, Cerberus. -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot
*sniff* That brings a tear to my eye. Thank you once more for your kind support. I have taken faith in the knowledge that I am doing the Good Lord's work, but it is encouraging to know that I am helping out the common man here.
However, I should be cautious about revealing your name 'Cerberus' on such a filthy den of depravity as Slashdot. It is a well known fact that the 'Kerberos' documentation from Microsoft is a detailed manual describing, in intimate, exacting detail, how to sexually penetrate a variety of unwilling canine animals; be they domesticated, wild, or mythical. Slashdot posters have taken great pleasure in illegally spreading this documentation far and wide, treating it as an 'extension' to the Linux 'Sauce Code,' for the sake of 'interoperability.' (The slang term they use for nonconsensual intercourse -- their favourite kind.)
In fact, sick twisted Linux deviants are known to have LAN parties, (Love of Anal Naughtiness, needless to say.), wherein they entice a stray dog, known as the 'Samba Mount,' into their homes. Up to four of these filth-sodden blasphemers against nature take turns to plunge their erect, throbbing, uncircumcised members, conkers-deep, into the rectum, mouth, and other fleshy orifices of the poor animal. Eventually, the 'Samba Mount' collapses due to 'overload,' and needs to be 'rebooted.' (i.e., kicked out into the street, and left to fend for itself.) Many Linux users boast about their 'uptime' in such situations.
Inspiring stuff! If only all trolls were this quality! -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot
If only indeed. You can help our brave cause by moderating this message up as often as possible. I recommend '+1, Underrated,' as that will protect your precious Karma in Metamoderation. Only then can we break through the glass ceiling of Homosexual Slashdot Culture. Is it any wonder that the new version of Slashcode has been christened 'Bender'???
If we can get just one of these postings up to at least '+1,' then it will be archived forever! Others will learn of our struggle, and join with us in our battle for freedom!
It's pathetic you've spent so much time writing this. -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot
I am compelled to document the foulness and carnal depravity that is Linux, in order that we may prepare ourselves for the great holy war that is to follow. It is my solemn duty to peel back the foreskin of ignorance and apply the wire brush of enlightenment.
As with any great open-source project, you need someone asking this question, so I'll do it. When the hell is version 2.0 going to be ready?!?! -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot
I could make an arrogant, childish comment along the lines of 'Every time someone asks for 2.0, I won't release it for another 24 hours,' but the truth of the matter is that I'm quite nervous of releasing a 'number two,' as I can guarantee some filthy shit-slurping Linux pervert would want to suck it straight out of my anus before I've even had chance to wipe.
I desperately want to suck your monolithic kernel, you sexy hunk, you. -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot
I sincerely hope you're Natalie Portman.
Dude, nothing on slashdot larger than 3 paragraphs is worth reading. Try to distill the message, whatever it was, and maybe I'll read it. As it is, I have to much open source software to write to waste even 10 seconds of precious time. 10 seconds is all its gonna take M$ to whoop Linux's ass. Vigilence is the price of Free (as in libre -- from the fine, frou frou French language) Software. Hack on fellow geeks, and remember: Friday is Bouillabaisse day except for heathens who do not believe that Jesus died for their sins. Those godless, oil drench, bearded sexist clowns can pull grits from their pantaloons (another fine, fine French word) and eat that. Anyway, try to keep your message focused and concise. For concision is the soul of derision. Way. -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot
What the fuck?
I've read your gay conspiracy post version 1.3.0 and I must say I'm impressed. In particular, I appreciate how you have managed to squeeze in a healthy dose of the latent homosexuality you gay-bashing homos tend to be full of. Thank you again. -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot
Well bugger me!
ooooh honey. how insecure are you!!! wann a little massage from deare bruci. love you -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot
Fuck right off!
IMPORTANT: This message needs to be heard (Not HURD, which is an acronym for 'Huge Unclean Rectal Dilator') across the whole community, so it has been released into the Public Domain. You know, that licence that we all had before those homoerotic crypto-fascists came out with the GPL (Gay Penetration License) that is no more than an excuse to see who's got the biggest feces-encrusted cock. I would have put this up on Freshmeat, but that name is known to be a euphemism for the tight rump of a young boy.
Come to think of it, the whole concept of 'Source Control' unnerves me, because it sounds a bit like 'Sauce Control,' which is a description of the homosexual practice of holding the base of the cock shaft tightly upon the point of ejaculation, thus causing a build up of semenal fluid that is only released upon entry into an incision made into the base of the receiver's scrotum. And 'Open Sauce' is the act of ejaculating into another mans face or perhaps a biscuit to be shared later. Obviously, 'Closed Sauce' is the only Christian thing to do, as evidenced by the fact that it is what Cathedrals are all about.
Contributors: (although not to the eternal game of 'soggy biscuit' that open 'sauce' development has become) Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, phee, Anonymous Coward, mighty jebus, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, double_h, Anonymous Coward, Eimernase, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward. Further contributions are welcome.
Current changes: This version sent to FreeWIPO by 'Bring BackATV' as plain text. Reformatted everything, added all links back in (that we could match from the previous version), many new ones (Slashbot bait links). Even more spelling fixed. Who wrote this thing, CmdrTaco himself?
Previous changes: Yet more changes added. Spelling fixed. Feedback added. Explanation of 'distro' system. 'Mount Point' syntax described. More filth regarding `man` and Slashdot. Yet more fucking spelling fixed. 'Fetchmail' uncovered further. More Slashbot baiting. Apache exposed. Distribution licence at foot of document.
ANUX -- A full Linux distribution... Up your ass!
Feces Thrower UNIQUE3
Can somebody point out the areas where Linux isn't yet as good as Windows? Granted, you can't run as many Windows Apps on Linux as you can on Windows, but then different versions of Windows have the same problem. IMHO, 2002 will go down in history as the year Linux ease of use surpassed that of Windows. What else do we still need to fix?
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
For those adopting open source, we have Peru, Mexico City, some parts of the US Govt, Norway, Disney, and China has long been open source to name a few. I'd say the dominos are starting to topple.
The real question is: When are programmers in the
USA and the rest of the "1st world" going to
realize that keeping money in the USA by supporting M$
is a "losing" proposition? It's like an addiction.
"Just say 'NO' to Microsoft". Boycott Microsoft.
Boycott Microsoft. Boycott Microsoft. Boycott M$...
If they don't do that, companies and countries which switch to Open Source software will be able to say, "Huh? Run MS Office? You must be kidding! It can't read most of my documents, and I won't be able to send useful documents to any of my colleagues in other organizations because they can't read MS formats!"
The thing is, that outcome doesn't need Open Source to completely displace the MS Hegemony to be effective; it only needs enough market share to make the fact that Open Source is harming MS's sales obvious to the press, then the bad PR from MS's incompatibilities will basically force them to play ball.
-----
I tried an internal modem, but it hurt when I walked.
How is this good for the country? It is Government's duty to keep public information public and freely accesible, ensure that it's always available, and be able to select service providers instead of "product" providers. Usage of open and free standards combined with open source applications guarantee this, which is a citizen's right. Notice that the Government is acting as a customer, setting the rules for the kind of products it wants to buy or fund; in this case, as a customer, it has a mandate to act in the best interest of the People.
By funding only GPL software it ensures that information systems are not only State's property, but also long lived and in a constant state of evolution and refinement, as a consequence of the nature of the free software development schema. This also ensures that Government money (that, in the end, comes from its citizens) goes back to the Citizens that are able to program, customize, install, configure, support and/or teach open source/free software.
Of course that training (for technical and non-technical targets), migration plans from propietary to free software and analysis of the many issues surrounding this decision have been taken into account. And members of academia are also involved as advisors. Many of Mr. Villanueva's ideas have been studied and changed accordingly, in this case it looks like is way past the "proposal" stage.
Hope I had shed a bit of light on the subject.
PS: roblimo, I'm the obnoxious venezuelan guy you met on Atlanta two years ago... these were the news I was talking about.
--
I'm neither pro-Chavez nor anti-Chavez.
I'm just pro freedom and anti stupidity, that's why I only use free software.
The smart countries are moving ahead. The governments that are either in the pockets of MS or simply lack bright enough politicians are holding off.
... :)
How can this possibly be a bad thing? Did you read the letter? Did you understand it?
I'm guessing no
The GPL mostly prevents "free rider syndrome", where people use code in their own programs without contributing anything to the original authors. It only does this to a fairly limited extent, and the LGPL is even more limited (by design), but they both place more obligations on re-users of the code than the purely defensive licenses.
No truly "open source" license can defend against the tactic of "reimplement, embrace, and extend" though, which is what Microsoft did to Kerberos.
proof, n. A demonstration that a conclusion is implied by certain premises and axioms.
of a small country ... when Gates came to convince me not to pass this type of legislation, I could encancerate him and hold him in the foulest jail until ~$40b were paid back as ill gotten gains, all to be redistributed to every single person on the planet that got suckered into buying more than 1 copy of a MS OS (win 98 SE *should* have been given away for free as an upgrade/patch kit and needed to come with a sincere apology to anyone who paid good money for win95).
Oh well, dare I dream?
You know, if Gates had been born 100 years ago, I'm convinced he would have been selling snake oil to cure baldness.
Apparently they have practical rather than philosophical motivations
Shouldn't open source in general be both philosophical AND practical?
It "only" means that Venezuela will be uncooperative license-wise, and not share changes they've made to software under the same terms that shared the original software.
I consider such games downright unneighborly.
Perhaps Venezuela is simply trying to avoid the fates of Brazil and Argentina. It was a Microsoft audit that forced them to declare bankruptcy wasn't it?
Karma: Anything remotely associated with Boy George I have no interest in.
No, Congressman Villanueva was clearly talking about Free Software, not Open Source (perhaps you aren't familiar with the difference between the two movements). He made explicit reference to this early in his response to the Microsoft rep who made the same error you did casting the bill in terms of the wrong movement. I explained this when it came up on Slashdot before. Given the language being used in the Venezuelan case, I have strong suspicions the same error is being made here.
Disney is a rather poor choice to cite in the context of "hav[ing]" something worthwhile. Disney is a major sponsor of the CBDTPA (née the SSSCA), a bill that seeks to further harm our ability to share. The Disney corporation speaks out in favor of infinite copyright power, part of the topic in the pending US Supreme Court case Eldred v. Ashcroft (née Eldred v. Reno). Disney is a vocal advocate of the ill-concieved concept of "piracy" and the claimed ills sharing brings to the movie and music industries. Gaining a small bit of camaderie with some Disney site admins who use Apache at the cost of losing our freedom to share is a very bad exchange.
The Norway example is typical of the misidentification of intention and statement some Open Source supporters often cite when talking about the GNU GPL. They say the GPL is an "Open Source" license, yet don't acknowledge it is only one because the Open Source Initiative chose to define its terms widely enough to include the GNU GPL in a list of approved licenses. If one takes the time to read the GPL and read what the Open Source Initiative says about the Free Software movement in its FAQ, it is clear the GPL does not say what the Open Source movement was created to accomplish. While I appreciate what Open Source movement supporters contribute by choosing to distribute their programs under the GNU GPL, I think it's unfair that the Free Software Foundation doesn't get credit for their work and the Free Software movement misses out on an opportunity to teach people about freedom and community. Please don't confuse people like Wired magazine does and cite the GPL as an "Open Source license".
Finally, your Mexico City example appears to be for Free Software when one reads the opinions expressed in the article you pointed to: "We agree with the philosophy of free software," said Valencia Garcia, aide to the city's technical coordinator, José Barberán. Just because Wired magazine misunderstands the difference between the Open Source and Free Software movements does not mean you should.
Digital Citizen
"[P]hilosophy" is not the opposite of "practical[ity]"--the philosophy of the Open Source movement centers on practical advantage; a development methodology chiefly aimed at businesses. This philosophy places that movement in sharp contrast to the philosophy of the older Free Software movement which focuses on ensuring that all computer users have the freedom to share and modify software.
Digital Citizen
The use of the GPL for all software developed by the Venezuelan government effectively precludes them from using Microsoft .NET.
At best, the GPL inconveniences "embrace and extend" tactics, since you can't re-use the source, but there's nothing whatsoever to prevent someone re-implementing the program and performing embrace and extend on that.
This is true in most of the world but in the US most government sponsored research is heavily patented. So in order to embrace and extend you without staying under GPL you have to relicence the patents. The article didn't mention patent policies, probably because they don't allow software patents, but I bet most universities will get US patents so they can get a little sponsorship for commercial applications. Not that it stops E&E, but they could create a policy that prevented any company from selling a non-GPL'd version of anything they invented in the US. Just because GPL gives you a non-exclusive patent license for the software and it's derivatives, which must be GPL...
because they can use open source source code that doesn't have the requirements of MS code therefore they can use older hardware.
google for "zinf is not freeamp"
The italian government supports closed software... Thank you ;-)))
Salvatore Meschini
http://smeschini.altervista.org
Have any sources, preferrably URLs, for that?
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
My philosophy is to spend money as wisely as possible.
Sure sounds pratical to me!
--Joey
Some information for non-Latin Americans.
First, Venezuela is currently in political and institutional turmoil. The current president, Hugo Chavez, is a caudillo: this is the Spanish word for a paternalistic dictator or local boss, in effect a feudal lord. Even if he came to power by elections, it was an anger vote against corrupt politicians. Hugo Chavez is a Colonel who previously had attempted a military coup d'etat, so he's no leftist or democratist, only a populist with muddled ideas.
This move, and other similar ones, come from the traditional latin institution of the canetada: this is the Portuguese word for a law that tries to change reality with little practical consequence, sometimes even making situation worse. Other examples are strict labour laws that drives workers into illegal semi-employment, minimum wages that serve only to cause inflation that makes workers lives' even worse than before, and so on.
Since the Roman-type "objective" law is encroaching into the anglo-saxon consuetudinary Common Law, this has been known to happen in the US too, like the POSIX and FIPS SQL standards validating systems from Microsoft and Oracle that were rigged to pass the tests, but are nowhere near open.
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
Yes, indeed these are great news! I'm really happy that Velug finally managed to pull out something good for us all :)
Oh yes, i live in Caracas, i run Freebsd in my home, i also do a little sysadmin job in another Freebsd machine on a cybercafe, and put Linux in a community FM radio (94.9FM) (only heard in parts of Caracas)
Im always trying to show the benefits of free software to my friends, and it is not easy. The same, well known issues arise again and again, but i will never give up :) Of course i don't push people to anything, in the end its their choice to give it a try. The incidents in Peru have been very inspiring for me to continue, and i hope to meet some of these fine people now finally in a position to do something positive for us all.
I can't accept the position of almost all the privately held media in Venezuela that absolutely everything out of this governement is bad and worst than the previous. This can't simply be true. Too many important people has been given now the oportunity that none of the previous corrupt politicians ever made to anyone unless a lot of cash were offered beforehand, in which case, of course was only for the benefit of the big foreign corporation interests.
Please continue to spread out the good positive news!
For people not living in Venezuela:
Most private media owners declared war to the current President, Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias, who apparently refused to continue maintaining special privileges for the sector. It was clearly evidenced in past Coup d'Etat (that only lasted 2 days!) when they not only closed the only non private held TV station (and all community radios), but also they self censored themselves by not showing any kind of news coverage of the events.
People who had satellite and cable TV could watch from CNN and Telemundo the events that were taking place only blocks away, but none of the local media were willing to show. One worker who later resigned in channel RCTV was literally given the order "Don't put on air any pro chavez demonstration".
Any journalist is supposed to get and show you both sides of a story, and then let you decide. In Venezuela, most news will only cover one side. As you have clearly seen, the intent for a few (used to be more priviledged than now class) is to get rid of Chavez at all costs. Simply because he is not willing to adhere to their interests.
Yes, 10 yrs ago Chavez attempted a Coup d'Etat, failed and went to prision. He later was set free, founded a political Party, and he cleanly won elections for president in 98. Truly some people were so angered by all the previous governements that made a dream of having a sort of "mesiah" that would came and clean it all. The reality showed otherwise. Trying to revert 4 decades of corruption is no small task, and it still erodes current goverment, so there have been lots of mistakes.
Mistakes that were not disguised, or denied, mistakes thas had been admited! And countless efforts have been made to settle things down, dialogue tables, international mediators (including the Carter Center), but there is a small yet powerful sector which happens to control most media which simply cares nothing and want him out.
I am still positive though. Things like Community Radio (known as Low Power FM movement in the states) and adoption of "Free Software whenever possible by the governement, are clear indications that things can be done, and ARE being done.
Artix
Your Linux, your init.
But since there may be, I think, just a dozen of computers in that whole country, it doesn't seem relevant to include it...
:o)
j/k
--- Sueños del Sur - a webcomic about four young siblings
There's quite a gap between `the US needs' and `this will occur'. Some would say that it takes balls to make a statement like that and I have to wonder: are they crystal? (-:
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
...acceptable. <Crunch>
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
The meeting started with señor minister asking `So what's my share?' and then going on to say that he saw said uncle's expression of amazement, but that was how things worked here, and had been working here `for over 400 years', and after Australia had been doing business for 400 years it might be in a position to comment on Mexico's methods (of course, by then Mexico would have been at it for 600 years).
Red Escolar consisted of a mailout of CDs. No support. Knowing that about Mexico, it was basically an invitation for Microsoft to give the appropriate minister(s) a wad of cash, make a nice-sounding offer, and charge in qith all guns blazing.
Surprise, they did. The technology was totally irrelevant.
The same thing is possible in Venezuela. Mind you, they've done exceptionally well at a lot of other political things, maybe they'll buck the trend again.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
China has made its position reasonably clear. Since the head honcho's son is running Red Flag Linux, I don't think Microsoft has a prayer there.
China already had a `one-disk country' reputation.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
This is developed by a venezuelan and there is a strong linux / OS movement growing steadily in universities and companies.
I know.I live here in Caracas,Venezuela.
One of my clients has a dedicated NT4 box which does just that. It's the acme of reliability. Not.
They'd be much better off with a headless variant of OpenOffice.org, and I'm sure there are even more streamlined solutions available.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Sometimes the dialog is blue and occupies the entire screen.
Also, as an administrator, I don't necessarily want my users bugg^H^H^H^Hsetting up their own network parameters. If it's broken, I want them to be bringing it to my attention.
Microsoft had a chance to do something truly new and good with XP. They blew it.
They will blow it again with LongHorn.
They also blew a chance to move towards real security. XP is still design insecure.
<deadpan>Ah, well, at least you didn't have to edit the registry (note their typoe near the end) to get it all working.</deadpan> It's all point-and-click on my Mandrake 8.2. In fact, with a sniffer I can make it pretty much automatic. What did you do wrong?
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
...and then order them to reverse their policy. Of course, the Brazilians might object to calling their city `Jenifa'.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
The world inside your head seems like a nice, logical place. Unfortunately it isn't well connected to the world around us. Microsoft will simply continue to pressure/bribe media sources into proclaiming that the problem lies with their competitor's software. Having a competitor who is a country, standards committee or random bunch of worldwide collaborators won't change that process much at all.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Yeah... They're gorgeous. Besides, they know that getting a western guy hooked up could improve their standard of living, so a geek there would probably get more attention than he ever had before.
Some of the most talented Solaris people I have met leave and work in Venezuela.
Venezuela is an oil exporter, this means loads of UNIX workstations and servers with loads of UNIX SAs to maintain them.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
No, they don't. If they did "refer to the same thing" one might wonder what the differences in the two movements are. There are some non-free software licenses (and licensed under them non-free software) that are acceptable to the Open Source Initiative. Some of this software is licensed under the original Artistic License and the Apple Public Source License. This is basic set theory--the set of licenses that qualify for being listed as Free Software are simply not the same set of licenses that are approved by the Open Source Initiative.
Your description is self-contradictory. If the two movements really spoke of the same thing one would have a hard time understanding how you could conclude they have "very different views and goals". The Open Source movement's goals simply do not include talking about software freedom, therefore they never engage in such discussion. Conversely the Free Software movement's goals include teaching people about software freedom, thus this movement takes the time to point out that the pragmatic advantages we all cherish come from particular freedoms in the licenses. This is a fundamental difference between the two groups. This difference informs the criteria by which the two groups judge software licenses.
The essay you claim awareness of tells us in the very first sentence:
Given all I just said, I'll take one of your remarks out of conversational order to illustrate my point in regard to a specific license--the GNU GPL:
I disagree that it is at all appropriate to refer to GNU Emacs as "open source". It's virtually impossible to read the GNU GPL and come away with a significant understanding of the Open Source movement. The GPL was written with the four fundamental freedoms of Free Software in mind and the GPL's preamble alone makes it clear that the focus of the GPL is defending these freedoms for all computer users. The Open Source movement had nothing to do with writing the GNU GPL or the Emacs license (from which the GPL came). This is because the Open Source movement did not exist until roughly a decade after these documents were written. Therefore it is historically and ideologically incorrect to identify GNU Emacs as being "open source".
Digital Citizen
I know; I've studied the venn diagram at FSF's page. The reason for that is that though the definition is pretty much the same (the DFSG and the OSD was at a time almost indentical, the four-freedoms also apply to the same software), the two movements come to different conclusions from that definition occasionally, because of the human factor. The definition is not a machine-readable, clear cut if-then-case, human judgement is necessary. The FSF chose to dis the original artistic licence because they didn't want to risk that the unclarities in it spread to their GNU system. The OSI wasn't in such a risky position, so it approved it. As for the APSL; debian has declared it non-free while the OSI has accepted it -- working from the same definition! Also, RMS once accepted the vim license even though it had the same non-freeness (compulsory source release even for non-modified software) as the APSL.
Besides, the FSF has a lot more free licenses on it's list than the OSI has on theirs, currently. (Due to a number of reasons not having anything to do with the free software definition.)
---
"While free software by any other name would give you the same freedom,"
" it makes a big difference which name we use: different words convey different ideas."
Yes. This is why I call it free software.
But what is 'it' in the above sentence?
Take Mozilla for example. The source was released largely due to the efforts of the open source crowd. (Which could not have existed if it weren't for RMS and the GNU project, but I digress...) Still, a free software zealout such as my self can look at it, read the MPL (which has a fair share of problems, don't get me wrong) and say "Yeah, this qualifies as free software, I can use it". Same goes in the other direction. ESR and the other OSIans can look at Emacs with it's GPL, say "yeah, this meets the OSD, this qualifies as open source software, so we can use it".
See?