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Venezuela Goes Open Source

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the bandwagon-gets-moving dept.

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.

4 of 339 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Do you think that MS will fund the next coup? by Aexia · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Remember, only TERRORISTS from TERRORIST NATIONS use open source software.

    Therefore, Venezuela must be a TERRORIST NATION. Bush will be instituting a regime change there in favour of a more Microsoft friendly government any day now.

  2. Re: Makes Sense by pjrc · · Score: 2, Redundant
    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.

    Yeah, tell that to Digital (DR-DOS) and dozens of others Microsoft has crushed over the years.

    --
    PJRC: Electronic Projects, 8051 Microcontroller Tools
  3. Re:GPL by bigjocker · · Score: 1, Redundant

    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

    You are wrong. The software developed for the government (by contractors or government agencies) must be GPL. The OS and platform must be open source whenever possible.

    If there isnt an open source alternative, a propietary one will be used, but this only applies for the pre-built technologies. All the new development must be released using the GPL.

    BTW, i'm from Venezuela

    --
    Life isn't like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.
  4. Two things by Jason+Earl · · Score: 1, Redundant

    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.