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Roblimo Abroad: Pushing Linux' Prospects In Jordan
Last week, NewsForge editor and Slashdot poster Robin ("roblimo") Miller traveled to Jordan to observe, talk about and foment the free software scene there, in part by speaking at the Open Source Software Workshop held in Amman. How do you grow a software industry in a country with a 30% poverty rate, where water supplies are a bigger concern than ATX power supplies? At the conference Robin spoke at, clearly a big part of that answer is high-quality free software. He notes that "Two gentlemen from Microsoft also spoke. I was in favor of Linux and Open Source. They weren't." Aside from the software side of things (including another plug for the awesome demo power of Knoppix), the report is worth reading to anyone as ignorant of Jordan as I am just to find out more about the place.
Workshop participants = zealots.
The BSA does fuckall outside of the US and Western Europe. If Panthip Plaza can stay open year after year after year after year, then there's no fucking way the BSA is doing a thing in as chickenshit a country as jordan.
Syria is a key strategic country that the US cannot afford to piss off over trifles. Furthermore, Syria is a net importer of intellectual property and has no significant software industry whatsoever to speak of.
Ergo, the low-cost-best-results alternative for Syria is to turn a blind eye towards software piracy, knowing full well that rightsholders' recourses are few. This will result in equally low cost, but better productvitiy and compatibility with the more developed world, because, zealot wet dreams notwithstanding, as of this moment Windows beats Linux for everyday user tasks, even moreso when we take network effects into account.
You should stop promoting free software and start promoting piracy.