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Brazilian Government Continues Push For Free Software
rmello writes "The 'Legislative Free Software Week' in Brazil ended last week, drawing 2,000 people, including 3 ministers and presidents of congress and senate. Computerworld reports (in Portuguese, translation by submitter), among other things, that 1) House of Representatives will NOT renew MS-Office licenses, but is looking at free software alternatives, 2) The free software parliamentary front was announced in congress, 3) The e-mail system of the house of representatives is being replaced by a free software one, 4) The federal government is looking at concrete measures to stimulate free software as means of saving money and stimulating the national software industry.
Looks like free software is here to stay in Brazil. Kudos to the many Brazilian free software groups working to make such victories a reality."
Its interesting that it says "not renewing" in regards to the MS office licenses.. does that mean that until they decide to go with open source alternatives (or not), that they will be illegally using the software? Or maybe they will continue using MS products, and just not renew licenses, etc..
"witty brazillian comment"
This is the break the Brazillian economy has been needing! Finally, prosperity, untold riches for all it's citizens!
Add another point to Open Source on the Scoreboard.
75% of all statistics are made up!
Any country which architecture is build on a foundation which can not be reinforced by private developers, will crumble until, and if, the contractor who built that foundation "patches" that foundation up.
And why did you staple the trout to the RAM?
I'm be interested to see how Microsoft react to this. E.g. Counter offers, as per the City of Munich decision to go with Linux desktops: Munich spurns Ballmer's rebates
You always have interest groups pushing for one solution or another. In the case of free software, it's tens of thousands of people who will have jobs they wouldn't have otherwise.
Switching systems like this requires more people (more jobs) for training and support. And even though the cost for the governament doesn't dramatically shrink, the money, not only stays in Brazil, but also creates thousands of new jobs.
It's about time the politicians of the world understand that important part of using free software!
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
> The most important is changing the deviant
> desires of rob malda for young boys, not only
> approving pro-free software laws
C'mon, can't you even READ it before moderating?
*sigh*
See you, space cowboy...
Yeah, exactly. Someone explain niave-me how this will stimulate the Brazilian economy.
OK heres about brazil:
Rich and poor, very defined. Kids huffing gas, and police squads killing kids.
Big celebrations and they are fun.
Free software supporting.
Hospitals going defunct, and leaving medical equipment that is radioactive on the streets up for grabs. No one knowing any better putting stuff in thier mouths cause it looks cool.
Free software supporting.
Hmm. I hope it saves them some money, then I hope they help thier people.
Anyone from Brazil please weigh in on this.
Actually it is allowed. They can use 2000/XP indefinately.
The unofficial
This is the start of a changing of how third world countries will act.
Seriously, lets see "PAY LICENSES" or "FEED PEOPLE"
Ok the argument is not always about feeding the people. Paying license fees is not what third world countries want to do. I mention this as a start because it will shift to other things other than software, eg Drugs Patents, Copyrights, etc. The West better be paying attention, because people like the RIAA say, "Why do you need bread when you can eat cake!"
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
So German government stated they were making the switch in 2001, China is making a switch, who's next. Could spell big trouble for MS' revenue considering China, and Brazil are just HUGE. This could be a break for Sun Microsystems though if they would do something with Solaris under x86 ala Linux or BSD. (freely downloadable I meant to say).
3) The e-mail system of the house of representatives is being replaced by a free software one,
Damnit, with the mention of another hole found in Sendmail I hope it wasn't that.
4) The federal government is looking at concrete measures to stimulate free software as means of saving money and stimulating the national software industry.
rants page): Let's say that OS #1 costs a small company $499.99 for about 10 licenses, we'll call this company Foobar Incorporated. Foobar incorporated is now getting pounded with about 20 virii per year, and it takes their administrators about 20 minutes per machine to update the operating system every time something new causes chaos on the network.
Either way you decide to do the math, it is going to be costly. Place 2 administrators in Foobar Inc., and have them patch up the system at a total cost of 100 minutes per person for the update. 20 minutes per machine multiplied by 10 machines divided by two administrators, we'll now give these administrators $10.00 per hour and the cost for this one instance is $33.33 for this one instance. $666.66 per year, for this one company. So how many small companies are there? Should we be generous and say 10 million? $6,666,660,000.00 in lost revenue.
These figures are only on viruses, not program crashes, not system downtime, strictly salary. Sure I know some geek wizard is going to scrutinize this be my guest... There are pros and cons to free software being you won't necessarily receive great tech support for it as opposed to some (note I said some*) companies tech support.
Now before someone unloads the holy grail of follow ups, I said *some* tech support. We all know that certain unnamed companies blow when it comes to tech support, but remember not everyone is going to browse through sites like kernel.org, nor jump on IRC for support. Many endusers still prefer pretty to geek.
</rant>
MoFscker
It is. However I wonder how much of OSS uptake is due to the poor state a lot of world economies are in because of the World Bank?
....Brazilian programmers won't be needed. After all, free software will be de rigeur. This will free up much valuable embezzlement money for corrupt officials to steal, that would have otherwise gone to pay programmers.
Brazilian Government Continues Push For Free Software
So... all M$ would have to do would be to distribute free copies of their software to the Brazilian government in order to solve this, correct?
If I were Ballmer and Co., I would take this as opportunity to nip this in the bud. But I'm not evil. [sarcasm] And I hope that M$ doesn't read this and steal my idea... because you just know that they've never done this before. [/sarcasm]
How many times have the Linuati proudly huffed that tech support personel was reduced by at least a factor of 10 when switching to a Linux solution? So now 90% of the current Brazilian tech support people won't be needed. As well as 100% of the programmers. Ergo: YOU'RE FIRED, PEPE.
Corrupt officials will welcome the freed up money now available for embezzleing.
SCO. what are you waiting. time to make some money !!! But you will have to FUD the brazillian goverment first :)
Time for McBride to get his machete.
I mean what advantages does this development give to Linux users? Its not that the Brazilian govt will channel money that they used to pay MS to the FSF. They just want to cut costs.
The only direct advantage of this is that the knowledge that open source hobbyist learnt on his spare time can now be implemented in the department... Wait, I take back that statement... The poor bastard will then have to support all the other ignorant users.
"Mauricio, how do I install this flash plugin on Mozilla?"
"Mauricio, What is OOo's equivalent for MS Access? What? There is none?!"
"Mauricio, what does RTFM mean?"
Man... I don't want to be in Mauricio's shoes.
Welley Corporation - SLM Scammers
Here is how I think it may stimulate the economy a bit. Brazil's population was 155.82 million in 1995 according to their Embassy's stats, so for argument's sake let's say it still is 155 million. Let's take one percent and say that they buy software. This would be 1,550,000 buying say MS at a very low price of 50.00 (US). That would equal $77,500,000.00
Now what if instead of spending that money on MS bs, they took that money and opened up research labs to develop products of their own. Wouldn't you say somewhere down the line, they would be better off if they could make revenue by saving on software as opposed to throwing it out the window. So how does it stimulate the economy? Well money could be shifted elsewhere that's how, it doesn't necessarily have to be using some notion that free software itself is going to generate revenue now. It sure does however make sense to make the switch. Maybe your sense of perception isn't on a business level who knows.
MoFscker
"Microsoft gives Brazil upgrades to latest releases for pennies on the dollar."
Will Brazil truly pull a Munich, or are they just playing the game Thailand thinks it won with Microsoft.
Some pics from the event:
http://www.gulms.org/fotos/SL_congresso/.
They can use the money they planned on licensing from Microsoft to support their own IT-staff, including programmers. They can afford to build and extend on Free Software where necessary. It's all about mindshare, thousands of people surrounding the government will also install Free Software, and contribute when they get educated about FSF/Open Source and have an itch to scratch. This means fewer people locked into the abusive monopoly behemoth that is Microsoft.
You should rather ask yourself: Why am I so negative?
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/
Someone asked "Why so happy?". Well now there will be many people working in parallel to use open source software in a large enterprise environment, and don't tell me you have to speak English to be a (good) hacker. People will solve problems, submit patches and improvements (if welcomed), and develop new software which we can use and leverage too.
Also it should divert money that would have gone to the richest man in the world, to pay programmers, and to encourage young people to study programming, starting with open source as a given not as an eccentricism. It is entirely possible that you will get an environment in Brazil in which Windows becomes a minority. Could you imagine what kind of things would be possible when the magnifying power of open source is combined with even a small budget? I'm looking forward to hearing stories about Brazil in the future where it becomes famous for a "can-do" attitude (and they actually do it!), when solutions are shared by many and developers are able to enjoy exponential successes.
If this can be documented and nurtured it just might suggest that there is another path for human development in general - capitalism is great but for some sociological or economic reason it hasn't done well in Brazil. Maybe open source can be used in programming and many other fields to codify knowledge and give Brazilians a boost so the money they do spend is most effectively disposed.
I think this goes beyond the general idea that the network is stronger the more nodes it has. We are talking about people who are going to be getting tools put in their hands, the equivalent of an investment of millions or billions of dollars worth of software, and they are going to attack problems and solve them by both tapping into support from the world at an individual level and by recognizing that problems can indeed be solved. The only things I would like to add are that food, sanitation, safety, machines, and free telecom are prerequisites for this. If the government has anybody with a clue (sounds like they do!) they will figure out a way to provide free highspeed internet connectivity. Conceivably this could be done around libraries or community centers, perhaps someone from Brazil or other countries with such experiences can provide some ideas. I am very interested in hearing what the result of this would be if started from Brazilian values, perhaps it could be refreshing.
One thing I can tell you is that one mature person educated in the world can make a difference. A journalist friend of mine has been able to build a hospital, orphanage, newspaper, and a hundred schools in Cambodia from donations around the world. I would guess that Brazil is far, far ahead of Cambodia, at least they have still got their brainpower among the living! Let's help them!
The federal government is looking at concrete measures to stimulate free software as means of saving money and stimulating the national software industry.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but how is this going to stimulate the industry if there is no money to be made for the software "companies"? Surely this will damage the software industry?
saving on software as opposed to throwing it out the window . Did you mean throwing it to Ms Windows ?
Using and promoting free software stimulates local know-how and will generate many jobs.
This is just one more sign that by electing their president Lula, the Brazilian people got the government they deserve (in a positive sense).
Let's see on september 1 (the vote on the Software Patents Directive) if we Europeans can we be equally happy with our Parliament...
nice xenophobic racist claptrap! w00 hoo!
Where can I find a legit copy of Windows for $50? Does it include the other software you need to make it "work", like Office, Exchange Server, and the other servers?
Let's instead take 1% of the Brazillian population and say that they will begin to donate their time to help with the existing free projects. That will mean 1,550,000 new testers, documenters (in Portuguese, no less!) and coders!
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
Suppose that a small office spends $50 on Linux rather than $500 on Microsoft. The other $450 does not disappear! The bueiness will spend $450 on other business expenses, or it will make the owners $450 richer -- which is better than making Bill Gates $450 richer.
At the end of the day, lower prices for software may or may not help the software industry. But they definitely help every other industry that purchases software.
Kudos for Brazil to use the term Free Software
for their week, instead of open source. Finally,
how refreshing.
instead of paying m$, they will pay local software companies to make needed changes to oss.
I can understand on an area advantaging theirselves, no matter what the fashion. Let's say you worked for a company that made a product that you exported. How happy would you be when that country decided to make their own? Would you jump up and down in sheer happiness for them before that trip to the umnemployment office? Or would the grim reality of just losing a customer set in? Then how would you feel when Brazil starting importing THEIR products here?
OK, fine, Brazil weans itself off the Microsoft tit. But remember, MS products are just that, products. Capitalism is the selling of products for financial gain. Financial gain is what pays employees. Look at this from a purely business perspective, not a "I hate Bill, rah rah rah" one. Many paid employees make MS products. Does destroying a market for employess make you happy?
And never mind American software? What about Brazilian software makers? Why should they be happy either? After all, free means free, who says that Brazilian software should be bought as well? Would you (a Brazilian coder) be happy if your market just disappeared?
You seem quite eager to code yourself out a job.
You are thinking too narrow -- you only see the wealth created by the sale of the license to use the software, not the wealth created from the users of the software.
I know several companies in the Seattle area (still suffering high unemployment and economic recession) that are successful *because* they use free software. They are able to adopt a piece of software, extend it to incorporate the features they need in their particular situation, and then add enough value to their company that they are turning healthy profits while all their competitors are flailing.
Let's take one piece of software -- the Apache web server. Even though acquiring the software requires little or no capital expenditure, deploying the software is pretty easy, and extending the software is only slightly more difficult, it is the foundation for several companies. Without that particular piece of software, they could not have built their business. Just having the software available to people creates wealth and value.
When Brazil unleashes a couple of million dollars from its IT spending and turns it into the pockets of Brazilian developers, testers, and documentators, it is going to begin the process of adding value to Free Software in Brazil. The companies and businesses will be able to utilize this software in their organizations, and add a bit of their own as well. The increased value of having the whole country united behind free software will bring such wealth that the previous revenue that licensing would've created would be seen as a drop in the bucket.
You have to view software from a holistic economic approach.
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
"Hopefully all those dollars leaving brazil and going to redmond will start to circulate in their own economy and providing jobs for their own kids."
Part of the problem with this argument is that unless an economy becomes a completely closed-environment It will have to export *something* in order to keep it's economy viable. Any reinvestments that the Brazillians make will have to go to that goal. Maybe Brazil can become the next outsourcing center, for former all-Windows shops, that thought the Linux migration cost were too high.
There is absolutely no reason why you cannot create a viable software addition to free software that can remain your IP. Coders that are good at creating taylored apps for specific needs will always make good money. With open source you do not have to pay for the framework to create from, big difference. If you get good enough you can create in effect your own distro taylored to individual needs. Try that with MS based framework without paying big time for a peek at MS proprietary libs! There are many ways to make money with Open Source and also contribute back. What will happen in Brasil is that the OSS people will be valued and the time licenced logic bombed closed source shit will evaporate. I am aware of the update strategies of alot of companies that remain closed source. When your support license expires there are things that just start to happen and you cannot figure out why, because you cannot see the source of the software that you bought a license to use. Closed source creates a place for cheaters and corporate theives to hide and will eventually be discredited. Business around the world is finally waking up to this fact. The US has become a closed country so the truth about this is suppressed. Nothing pisses Microsoft more than the fact that they can not get away with what companies that write with their tools for their OS can. You might be an ethical and responsible software dev person but not all Windows based companies are. Everybody is still trying to get mega rich off IT and the bubble is already burst. There will be no more mega rich software monopoly companies one was enough.
OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
No one would be happy, but the tone sounds as if you would like to have something of a monopoly on a product. Let's change this to cars for a second. We all like cars and some of us depend on it for livelihood. You see car A that does everything you want, has been loyal to you for years, etc. You stick with it. Even if car B suddenly comes out touting the same trustworthiness would you be quick to dump car A for car B? I would hope not. Now supposing car B is better, it's cheaper, more efficient, would you keep throwing your money away? I would hope not.
Would you jump up and down in sheer happiness for them before that trip to the umnemployment office? Or would the grim reality of just losing a customer set in? Then how would you feel when Brazil starting importing THEIR products here?
Before I answer this let me just snip this out of your comments: products are just that, products. Capitalism is the selling of products for financial gain. Financial gain is what pays employees You've managed to answer your own thread without even realizing it did you know that. Capitalism sometimes keeps companies on their toes, and searching for the next big thing. Would you rather have innovations spawned or the same old boring deck of cards? Refer to my car example since I think it's as plain as black and white. Now if you want my thoughts on another subject oh say... Buy American? I'll take the bait on that too. It is my money and I will spend it on what works for me. Whether or not people agree with this statement it is my hard earned money, so jumping into the car theme again, if a Japanese car works better than an American one, then I'm all for it.
MoFscker
Just wait until MS comes along and offers deep deep discount with lots of tech support.
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
By stimulating people to write software for free, the government doesn't have to worry about creating jobs that require monetary payment. Whoever came up with this plan is a fucking genius!!!!
Contrary to poplular opinion, it costs money to create, distribute, and train people to use free software. The obvious benefit for Brazilians is that the money earned from writing it stays in Brazil rather than fattening the already bulging coffers of a certain U.S. monopoly.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
I like what you said here: Not relying on dollar-paid foreign products greatly is of utmost importance to the economy and financial position of Brazil.
You are very wise, we should do the same. We should ban all imports, much like Brazil is doing to American MS products. Using and promoting American products stimulates local know-how and will generate many jobs. To send out money outside the country only weakens our nation. If it works for Brazil, it should work for us.
Sounds to me like Mauricio has job security. Better that than for his kids to join the others on the street.
If America is allowing this to happen (unfair trade) practices, why would I be upset at Brasil? I would be upset that my country didn't do right to correct the issue. I don't want to get into this too much because your comment: White guilt (and before you get all liberal angered, I'm Hispanic)? was way off. So much so I lost respect after I had thought it would be a good thread.
MoFscker
Chances are though that Brazillian officials are much more likely to spend their embezzled money in Brazil than Microsoft programmers are.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
Perhaps, they might start looking in their own backyard and have their National Institute for Space Research (a goverment backed organization) open source the excellant SPRING GIS package from what is already a free download, but no source. Works on Linux/Solaris and Windows, and is rather easier to use than GRASS.
http://www.dpi.inpe.br/spring/english/like in "finit", over.
This error seems to be more common among Americans than, say, Swedes (where the emphasis is on the second 'i' (or third in this negated "in"-prefixed form)). I wouldn't comment on a spelling thing on slashdot if I thought it was a sloppy mistake, I comment only because I'm beginning to think that some people actually think it's always spelled "indefinately".
The software will be written by others. You are naive to think that Brazil will now hire more programmers. In fact the opposite will hapen, it will FIRE more programmers. Brazil will use the FREE software that others write, i.e. you. Didn't you read the fucking article?
Do you think economic jingoism by Brazil is right? Would you like your own country to do it as well? Your silence and changing the subject says volumes.
Only if all the major security flaws are spotted before M$ stop supporting it - which is unlikely. So you'd have software with known vulnerabilities, and the only people who have the source code can't be bothered to fix it.
Anyway, if the software did the job in the first place, why would it need "upgrading"? Obviously it is lacking, so why not look at a different provider?
I think in countries like Brazil, India and China where labour is cheap it's even cheaper to move to another software system than in the 'Western' countries because the migration process takes a lot of effort (and thus man-hours).
-- Cheers!
If they spend it locally, on hiring developers to improve open source products or on entirely other things (like education etc.), they can spend it multiple times: Part of it will be taxed as it is spent (VAT/sales tax, income tax on salaries etc.), and the government will spend the money again - likely mostly in Brazil. Parts of it will be paid as salaries to people who will spend the money mostly locally. And so on.
Any money kept locally as opposed to paid out of the country will likely circulate in Brazil several times, and may help build value (some of it may end up being invested in companies that generate a profit, or may be used to purchase goods from companies that as a result can afford to expand their business).
So the value of being able to keep the money locally is a lot higher than just the monetary value of the cash that stays in the country.
Thus, a healthy European software industrie based on OSS is needed in order to be independent of the US.
I truly hope that our parliaments will realize this before it is too late.
Not different from US, UK, Spain...
Didn't look up what "huffing gas" means, but it has being some time now since last killing squads (rogue police groups) made a hit on minors here.
This, like the last one, happened in the 1980's. More care is being taken, now.
I seriously doubt this would be different in any USian or EUian ghetto and, believe me, I know some pretty hard EU ghettos.
Someone else in this thread pointed out: renew licenses Vs. feed people is an easy decision to make, right?
And it is about feeding the people, cause we are in a deep recession; if you start developing free software, knowledge is formed and stays in the country, the money goes to people that has the knowledge here and pumps the economy up.
I didn't get quite what you mean, yuri82. What exactly the CC does, that hinders the country growth?
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
What we see in these days are about the last attempts of the US (both economy and government) to avoid loosing their grip on the rest of the industrialised world.
All the more reason for them to be planning a switch to OSS. Same as the city of Munich, right?
Perhaps all this is the start of a new positive growth trend for OSS... or is that wishfull thinking?
The unofficial
http://www.socialconscience.com/articles/2003/guat emala/
Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense.
Smartarse comments about Chinese piracy aside, how does MS get to raid schools in Shanghai?
I would have thought that these schools would not have had any reason whatsoever to let MS (or "antipiracy officials" in general) anywhere near their systems. If anything, I would have thought the Chinese education system was about as immune to this type of treatment as any group of people on the planet, courtesy of a long history of piracy being tolerated in China and the Chinese education system not taking a pro-American stance ever as far as I'm concerned.
What's changed?
The OSS will kill our job. At least, part of it.
*yawn*
OSS will kill a small minority of programming jobs, namely that of hugely popular shrink-wrap programs - which ATM mostly seems to be the problem for MSFT, which is why MSFT is the most violent OSS opposer. Most programmers get the money for doing custom software, or less popular/more tedious software products (embedded stuff), which don't interest OSS programmers all that much.
So a big evil monopolistic corporation loses, while others benefit. More programming jobs will be created, and a lot of them will be integration/RAD langs such as Python. Systems will be based on Open Standards, and be in general much more sane. Infrastructure wants to be free.
It's all beautiful.
Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
Most people, like me, work for a company doing inhouse development, modifying existing programs and writing new ones.
Open source is also good for "local" developers, since no program fits a company perfectly and there's always room for improvements. That's a few new jobs right there for those who want it.
Please don't try to scare the Americans with some old McCarthy'isms about socialism and communism. It's not fun and it's not doing anyone any good.
Also, if hospitals and other government agencies can pay less for software and have more money to heal people, I don't have a problem with that. The same goes for other companies, if they can cut prices by not paying license costs, I'm just happy about it.
You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. -- Harlan Ellison
2000 shouldn't fall out of support until 2005, and XP should be around 2007, so there's plenty of time to ditch the trash and move to Open Source.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
I just got back from the Peru "software libre" conference. It was reasonably informative. The most common recurring theme that I gathered (though not explicitly put in these terms).
:))
;)
(1) Free software allows "nascent" software developers/local economies to jump start development.
(2) Cost, cost, cost.. This is particularly a big deal for the government.
Someone from Oxfam (the NGO) who was sitting in the audience mentioned that software licenses are 2nd biggest export of money in third world countries,
(3) Practical examples of software development in the south america. One particular example was the development of an (my words) "polytechnic" education course system based on free software in brazil. (Also IBM South America was there but he basically got SCO questions
(4) The moral choice of Free Software by Stallman who else
-bloosqr
There was an article on slashdot yesterday about MS inroads into schooling and higher education in the US. While it might tend to produce a higher number of people working on MS technologies and get more people and businesses into the old MS rut of paying exhorbitant prices for the annual round of MS software upgrades at the expense of OSS solutions, it is also a very US phenomenon.
The governments and industries of many other countries (with some notorious exeptions in countries where the government is very dependant on the US) have, in all probability, seen the writing on the wall in terms of software development for a while now: Buying Microsoft products "dumbs down" the local software developer base in that the local software developers would then be using high level tools to develop products that run on MS OSes, but would have less freedom and knowledge to make changes on lower level OS internals. Not only this, but a large amount of local hard currency would be leaving those countries borders forever in the direction of the US.
It is in most countries own interest to stimulate local software development, be it closed or open source. Open source is simply easier and the only real alternative to MS as an OS. The Amiga might have had a good go, years ago, but the only real alternative to MS nowadys where there is sufficient local talent to make realistically useful software is in OSS.
And I am willing to bet that no amount of MS bullying or bribing will change those minds in the long run.
Microsoft really screwed the pooch on this one.
Whether this is an example of third world brilliance outthinking their arrogant American counterparts (getting Microsoft to effectively subsidize their move to free software by selling them such inexpensive, limited time licenses, thereby decreasing their costs of transition dramatically), or just countries getting incredibly lucky as a result of Redmond's panic, I don't know. Probably a combination (not to mention examples of outright corruption, with corrupt politicians being replaced by less corrupt ones who revive these initiatives, examples of short sighted politicans balking when it comes time to pay the piper and renew licenses, instead renewing the free software initiatives they tabled earlier, and who knows how many other variations on this theme).
In any event, the irony is delicious. We as a community lamented the short sightedness of so many third world countries selling out to Microsoft in exchange for cheap licenses that would expire in a few years, when in fact Microsoft was being far too clever for their own good, helping to underwrite all these nations' transition to freeer platforms. They squandered their last chance to get licensing fees from these nations, and effectively did nothing to prevent them from transitioning away from their product anyway.
Or at least some of these nations, like Thailand and Brazil. Who knows how it will play out elsewhere, but for now I'm chortling with delicious glee.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
Yeah. But people from Brazil care about this stupid vision you have. Try to know something about the place before you vomit your freak opinions.
who read:
:-)
2) The free software parliamentary front was announced in congress,
as:
2) The free software paramilitary front was announced in congress,
It is a cool name though...
ROFL
On the one hand, the developed West becomes completely beholden to the Corporations: Microsoft, RIAA, MPAA, with Windows used in schools, universities, hospitals, governments... with innovation stiffled by patents and the DMCA, with lobbyists creating laws for purposes of business and not the civil state.
On the other hand, the rest of the world with an eye on the budget, choosing for free software and eventually developing their own. India, Brazil, China, and eventually Africa too. Countries where innovation continues because it's a matter of survival, and where the corporations can't impose their US laws because governments are incapable and unwilling to enforce them.
Why does the US still suffer from a fragmented and pathetically old-fashioned telephone system while even the most war-striken, bankrupt nations on earth already have one or two national GSM networks? Because where there is nothing, people can create.
Similarly, the IT industry in the West has moved to a phase of terminal stagnation, and will eventually be reduced to a simple service industry, with the innovation being done in those places that today choose open source.
No coincidence that another article today mentioned Microsoft's gradual takeover of the US's CompSci departments. Innovation through Windows? Now that's funny!
Ceci n'est pas une signature
" Yeah, exactly. Someone explain niave-me how this will stimulate the Brazilian economy."
u 52 564.shtml
The Brazilian government spend around US$1.000.000.000 (yeah, one billion... and yeah, dollars) with MS licensing. That amount will be spent somewhere else (health, education, training, etc) within Brazil and for Brazilian citizens.
One billion of dollars is an impressive amount here in Brazil that can make a difference.
By the way, the Brazilian government is the largest licensee of MS in Brazil.
In portuguese, an interview with the Science and Technology minister (favorable to adoption of open-source programs)
http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96
Is there widespread corruption (politics, justice, etc.)? Yes. But it does not evenly distribute across the country and it tends to concentrate in certain cities. Just like any other country, except that in Brazil, corrupts have lost shame because Brazilian laws are so ridiculously detailed that they became impossible to enforce.
Many of the comments here see this as the start of something big in
Brazil. In many ways, it is perhaps better to see it as the culmination of
a process that has being going on a long time. There have already been free
software initiatives at many levels in this the fifth largest country in the
world. Most notable of these is in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, which
hosts each year a major free software event. I also know that in Brasilia itself they have been
funding free software development to support, for example, information
exchange between all the different legislatures in Brazil.
Moreover, the support for free software would seem to extend across
political parties. A workshop I attended in Sao Paulo last year, to
encourage cooperation between Latin America and the EU in the IT was
explicitly asked to be about free software by the administration preceding
that of Lula da Silva. This means the Brazilians already have a wealth of
experience in using free software and for finding mechanisms to fund its
development. It also means that there are already a lot of firms and
administrations that have committed to this process. Some of the comments
here have suggested that Microsoft must merely flash out its cheque book to
block the push for free software. I think it would have to flash out many
cheque books at many levels and would step on the toes of many local
interests.
Two other aspects of free software in Brazil do not seem to have received
much attention. The first is the wealth of good free software programmers
already in Brazil. Several key Zope developers come from Brazil and the
first language into which the popular content management system Plone was
localised was Brazilian Portuguese. A lot of good work is also going on in
free software GIS systems such as SPRING.
The second aspect is represented by the presence in the congress of the
Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil. I note that the title of the congress
mentions "free software" and not "open source". The interest is not just in
economics or software engineering, it is also cultural and extends into
other areas, such as the support for creative commons
licenses.
Viva Brazil! Viva o software livre!
for-the-people.org
Friends Actually, Brazil does have some IT (and high tech) expertise: 1) Lua programming language was developed by PUC's (Catholic University) Rio de Janeiro staff. 2) Marcelo Tosati (programmer who works for Conectiva _ a Linux system based in Red Hat) is the maintainer of Linux kernel 2.4, I guess. 3) We are the first country to run elections in a computerized system. Flame bait: you americans do need some help in this issue? ;-)
4) Spring is a GIS software developed in Inpe (National Institute of Spacial Research - free translation).
5) Mac Donalds in Brazil (yes, it's right!) uses a management system developed by a native soft house. And have plans to export those to foreign countries.
6) Onca (Jaguar) network were the first to sequence a complete bacterium DNA (Xilela fastidiosa) and make it public (probe in Nature or Science magazine, I don't remember). This makes Brazil the first country to sequence completely a bacterium DNA.
This is part of Genoma Project developed in Sao Paulo Province.
And we are always open to foreign people that wants to develop high tech research in our country. Several of our universities phD researchers come from USA or Europe universities.
Best regards
(sorry about the poor english) :-(
That's just nonsense, there is no way Open Source software would force people to work for nothing.
You don't expect a Lawyer to work for you for free yet access to the Law is free for everyone.
Open Source is actually a great thing for developers, they have free access to the source code and can modify existing applications to suit there clients as they see fit. They will not have to pay for "developers licences", they will not have to spend money calling the Support lines of large faceless corporations to naviagte through the badly documented intricacies or hangups of a particular package.
Without all these overheads they will be able to charge lower prices to end customers and increase their profits.
The only situation which I can see that would involve Open Source putting us all out of a job is if at some point everything anybody ever needs from a computer has already been released as Open Source and needs no modification at all. I think is fairly similar to the dilemma faced by house builders - once they have built houses for everyone they will all be out of a job. Strangely this not an issue which gets much coverage in the media.
This is also ignoring the fact that there is nothing to say you can't charge people for Open Source packages in the first place.
This is a really, really interesting thought.
It *is* a better deal for Germany to do this.
May we never see th
A plethora of countries announce various free software and open source initiatives
"Hefe... Do you even know what a plethora is?" -- El Guapo
About the hospitals, the public ones have really long lines but give %100 free service. If you have insurance, the better hospitals (fleury and einstein in sao paulo) are on par with anything I've experienced in the states. Extreme cases are just that, out of context.
As for the general issue of free software in brazil, well, java is huge here - open for a closed standard but not exactly free (as in speech). Another important point is that IBM has, if not all, most government contracts for development - I'm actually working for an IBM partner. On the positive side, tomcat/apache, eclipse, linux (even on the desktop) are all essential parts of the picture.
iksrazal
Ola pessoal,
Que pena que os gringos nao entendem o qao profundo foi esta escolha. Nao queremos dar calote ou algo parecido. Apenas queremos economizar nosso rico dinheirinho.
Pela primeira vez, temos um governo "honesto", que se precoupa com o povo. Um governo que quer arrumar a "casa da mae Joana" deixada por outros governos.
A freiada brusca na economia foi necessaria para que possamos nos preparar para termos um desenvolvimento sustentavel. Antes, estavamos nas maos do capital volatil.
Preparados, podemos concorrer com outros paises no desenvolvimento de software. Podemos, tanto quanto a India, Estados Unidos e outros.
Temos um povo, unido e simples. Uma gente criativa e forte para contornar problemas estruturais.
Os problemas geralmente sao esquecidos com a Copa do Mundo, PAN ou Carnaval.
Ainda bem que nao temos guerra. A nossa guerra e contra a fome, a corrupcao, a miseria.
O uso do software livre permitira o desenvolvimento da nossa industria de software, o fortalescimento das pequenas e medias empresas de software, mais emprego, etc.
Viva o Brasil.
Im sorry, I really dont want to write this in english. Try to read Brasilian Portuguese.
Do you want to make some thing good, come to Brazil. Every one who come here, fell like in home. We receive everybody like a person, if we dont speak english, we try. If we dont speak german, japonise, spanish, what ever - we try. Just to you fell in home.
Our country have some problems, but we are working on this.
We dont have Wars. We dont have Earthquake and we dont have snow. Before talk about our country, know it.
God bless Brazil!
"Nesse chao existe um povo,
Uma gente que TE ama.
Que clama a DEUS e acredita nas promessas.
ELE vira, restaurando a nossa terra.
Se o meu povo que se chama pelo MEU NOME,
Dos seus caminhos maus se desviar,
EU ouvirei, perdoarei e SUA TERRA SARAREI."
CD: Diante do trono 5
Musica: Brasil
Grupo: Lagoinha
You're assuming the deal(s) done today won't come unravelled tomorrow. MS is hoping the following plays out: the target countries stay w/MS "for the time being" while (a) MS continues to campaign for them stay w/MS longer-term AND (b) MS continues to improve Windows. A year or two from now (ok, 2-4 years from now), things could be different, and MS is hoping that they can keep users until then and get another shot. Don't think the days of vaporware are past; even today, a sucker continues to be born every minute.
John.
It's yet another GForge installation.
The Army reading list
Usualy they politicians steals more from more expensive stuff then for cheaper alternative. If get 10% of nothing you got "nada". If you get 10% of 4 millions you got 400 Thousand.
[]'s Victor Bogado da Silva Lins
^[:wq
Slashdot readers should know that the current president in Brazil, Lula (Luis Inacio da Silva) is a very active labor activist who has run for pres. for the past several elections. His success in the polls is a big, big deal--the last time a leftist won the presidency, the military kicked him out and imposed a harsh rule on the country for years. Much of Brazil's debt was incurred during this period from so-called "pharonic projects" like a road through the Amazon that was almost immediately eaten up by the jungle (there was much more jungle at the time).
Pay attention. I expect a lot more interesting decisions from Lula's government, besides ditching the Microsoft stranglehold (mod me flamebait if you want, but you know it's true). Just recently they overhauled the very costly pension system for government employees--pissed off a lot of people, but seems necessary to cut gov. spending and redirect it to more urgent problems.
And for all you Brazilians out there who disagree with me, and think Lula's election was a travesty, tell me why. I know not everyone is optimistic.
Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a soportar Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a espabilar
The correct translation of "Camara dos Deputados" is "Chamber of Deputies," not "House of Representatives." All of the stuff listed in the article occurred in the Chamber of Deputies.
hey AC, yuri82 and the other AC were saying that, for example, teaching poor people that familiar planning is a sing, the Catholic Church is making the poverty problem worse, by (1) increasing the number of poor people and (2) decreasing the chances the currently-poor people get richer, because they must support their kids.
No corruption was mentioned.
I disagreed with the other AC, saying that people no matter how poor are not buying into the condom==sin thing and that at the present time.
No corruption again.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
I mean what advantages does this development give to Linux users?
It makes Brazil one of those nice places where an individual can develop things independently and share their work, and are encouraged to, legally?
Unlike the USA, Japan and (as of next week) EU, where individuals and small businesses are selectively persecuted, and always under threat.
There they have a system called "patents on virtually every widely used idea", most of which are harmless but a few are selectively enforced. Much like bad laws - everyone ignores them but a few targetted folk are persecuted with severe and often unreasonable consequences.
The lie of the land at the moment suggests a minor brain drain, from Europe to Brazil, precisely because of their more enlightened approach to creativity and development.
-- Jamie
It sounds more like "easy women" to me. If buying a drink and dinner is the definition of "prostitute" ... I've been ripped off by a lot.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
Microsoft's corporate policy is complete control, and they have focussed to thoroughly on that alone that they have lost touch with reality. Just as an M$ monoculture is easy grounds for virii and worms, their corporate dependence on thinking soley in terms of control will be their downfall. If they had maintained their lead based on competence, they would not be in this position. Fact is, they don't know how to compete on competence, and worrying about the technical side of things would distract them from worrying about the political side, so they don't
Infuriate left and right
At least I'll be able to learn, at last, what it is that Joe Carioca considers the equivalent of, "as you Americans say, 'what's cookin?'"
Microsoft does all translations in USA, this already made several problemas as placing as translation for indigeans things as "people wo don't like to work, no developed, etc" in spanish translation for Mexican Office.
Remember that a major part of mexicans are just descendents from indigeans...
But anyway I belive that even if no development is made here (I'm from brazil), at least we will have access to the sources to LEARN (that I as a computer science student think it the important thing about open source). :)
And never forget the stable linux kernel mantainer is a brazilian...
Good for them!!! I just hope they don't screw it up like we did in Mexico City. The government had a plan to switch to Linux and then backed out because all the linux people here got too greedy and wanted to get hired for support, development, etc with very high salaries. Then MS comes with the well-known cheap software upgrades offer, and the government sticked with MS. They didn't see the long-term benefit of OSS. But the sad part was that the linux people didn't see them long-term benefit, either. They just wanted to get rich right away.
Go hug some trees.
Please don't try to scare the Americans with some old McCarthy'isms about socialism and communism. It's not fun and it's not doing anyone any good.
The difference is in two words: Infinite supply. If you have a limited supply, you need to distribute it somehow requiring some form of central control, and even if there's enough those at the top will hoard it for power, as is what happened.
An essential tenet of socialism was expressed by Karl Marx: "From each according to ability, to each according to need." How much Linux do you need? One copy? Ten copies? A million kazillion copies? Here. Take as much as you need. How much do you need to give back? According to ability and desire, nothing if you don't want to. In that respect, OSS offers even more for less work than socialism ever claimed to do.
This is also where the physical equivalent breaks down. People had needs (e.g. food), but not enough were willing to work to produce food. After all, in the idealistic world your needs would be fulfilled nonetheless, from "somewhere". But it doesn't work that way - if noone grew crops, there would be no food. So they had to force people to work, what field to work in, what to produce. Enter a totalitarian regime.
When it comes to software, you only need to produce it once - after that it is reproduced in unlimited quantities at essentially no cost. None of it is consumed the way food is, which makes all the difference. If all the farmers quit, there'd be no food supply and a famine. If all the OSS developers quit, the software would still be in infinite supply, it would simply stop to evolve. There is no need to force developers to work to "sustain" the Linux supply.
Socialism is full of rethoric that quite simply doesn't work in the physical world, as has been proven time and time again in various attempts at implementation, such as communism. However, the way computers work changed the rules, making the OSS movement much more true to the ideals of socialism than any regime in history ever has been.
Another key element in socialism, was the public ownership of the means of production, which in this case would be the source code. Both the BSD and GPL licence (and others) provide a form of "public ownership" by giving the general public the right to modify and redistribute their code. In particular the GPL goes very far to ensure that the work remain in "public ownership" under the GPL.
None of them have any of the revolutionary aspects of communism though, it's not like we should tear down Redmond and take their source code. It is simply a movement to create a code base of the people, where the collective effort may even in the end exceed that of any commercial corporation, making the corporation obsolete. This is your average "Linux will take over. Windows will die." slashdotter.
In all essence it would be the victory of a socialistic system over a capitalistic system, but it's not like it would be the end of the world. Americans too should be able to realize that a noble ideology and reality may be quite different. You put down "all men are created free and equal" in the declearation of independance, but kept slaves. In the same way, the actual governing of the Soviet Union and the other communist states was a far cry from what was the ideology of socialism.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
More people on this planet speak Portuguese than speak French, Russian, Japanese, German, and Italian. There are more English and Spanish speakers, though.
Brazil didn't have a printing press until the 20th century (nor a university, IIRC). The Portuguese colonists did their best to keep the populace uneducated. Brazil was also the last country to end slavery (~1889 or 1899).
Given Brazil's history as one of the poorest and least educated countries (median, not mean), I think it's remarkable they've done so well. As is commonly stated by Brazilians, Brazil is the country of the future. Ordem e Progresso!
There's a lot more to the country than glue-sniffing kids playing with radioactive material and getting shot by the police. As one of my old teachers used to say, "Brazil is not for beginners."
Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a soportar Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a espabilar
How can linux solutions, that encourage enterprises to develop in-house, fire programmers? OMG.
Besides, we speak Portuguese here, no Pepes and no Pacos here.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
"(b) MS continues to improve Windows."
This simply isn't good enough anymore! Improving Windows won't do, Microsoft has to improve Microsoft!
Remember that this is the company that single-handedly invented the concept of the computer virus. I don't even remember hearing the term back in mainframe days.
Then, instead of fixing their blunders, they used abusive corporate practices to gain a monopoly such that they never would need to fix their products. Now that they are beginning to have competition from Open Software, they are talkin about "Trustworthy Computing", but only talking!
What puzzles me is why it has taken countries like Brazil this long to wake up.
A country that uses proprietary, closed-source software is a country that is not free. A country that uses proprietary, closed-source software is partly under control of the seller of the software and of government of the country in which the seller is located.
Why is it that the government of Brazil is quicker than the government of the United States to realize the necessity of running a government with open source software?
To understand this, it may help to understand other differences between Brazil and the United States. One country is more primitive in some ways and less developed than the other. For example:
The United States government has bombed 24 countries in the years since the second world war. The Brazilian government has bombed none.
The United States government supports culture. It has an organization called the National Endowment for the Arts. Apparently that is the group that puts on those unbelievably boring shows in the U.S. capitol. The Brazilian government supports culture. The culture minister, Gilberto Gil, is a musician and singer who is famous throughout the world.
Officials of a large city in one country visited the officials of another country to learn how to run a city in a more humanistic way: Officials of the city of New York visited the officials of Curitiba, Brazil, to learn the mayor's methods for making a city an enjoyable place to live.
Brazilians are generally slim and good-looking. Americans are the most overweight populace that has ever existed. This seems to be because the Brazilians are more skilled at making themselves happy than Americans. Definitely Americans eat when they are not hungry, and indication of unhappiness.
The city of Rio de Janeiro has a reputation for violence. The homicide rate is 43 per 100,000 people. The city of Washington, D.C, the capitol of the United States, does not have a reputation for violence. The homicide rate in Washington, D.C. is approximately 77 per 100,000 population, close to double that of Rio.
The United States government has powerful organizations that operate in an almost completely secret way as a world-wide police force, forcing U.S. government ideas and culture on other countries. For example, there is the NSA, CIA, and FBI, and some agencies whose existence is almost a secret from U.S. citizens. The Brazilian government is far from perfect, but it has nothing comparable.
The Brazilian culture is far from perfect. For example, Brazilians generally don't like to plan, so things that require planning are often done poorly. But in the areas above and in other areas, things are better in Brazil.
Gave me one of his "pleasure cards" and farted all the time durning our meeting. We run a huge project at the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Relations that uses ACS and OpenACS-based technology to exchange S&T info between 21 observatory offices we have around the world. It was the first time OSS was used in the Ministry, so we had to break a few of (Microsoft representatives) Politec-guys' kneecaps to have it our way. ITI (Presidency's Institute for Information Technology)'s idea is to create legislation in order to guarantee that every software originally developed under a free licence - whatever one it might be - will have its terms irrevocably respected as originally intended. That means no OSS having its code closed overnight.
Use rhetoric all you like, but if you quote statistics, don't LIE (statistics can do that all on their own, thank you very much). The homicide rates you quote (and don't cite sources for) seem to be the inverse of the actual statistics, so you are either guilty of willful misreading, or out and out fabrication.
The actual homicide rate for Washington DC is 45.82 per 100,000 (here and here), and for Rio it is 69 per 100,000 (here); while DC leads the murder rate for US cities with populations above 500,000, New Orleans ranks higher with a rate of 53.3 per 100,000 (ibid) . Meanwhile So Paulo has 60 per 100,000 (here).
Yeah, I'm using lazy-man's sources, but they seem to be in general agreement, and if I could scare up the actual UN figures instead of just citing people citing them, I'm very confident they would agree.
Your numbers, on the other hand, seem to have been pulled from you ass, as is most of the rest of your post.
Brazil is a country riddled with resources and crime, it has lots of problems and lots of working to fixing them...I don't know, I'm either a bit choked up or just daunted ... just to cite countries I know for sure have lots of the same problems and many goodies. ... :-)
so is US (the coutry with most convicted people in the world), so is Russia, Spain,
I understand the impulse to defend Brazil, the pride that comes with the sadly always soon-to-be-modern nation. I imagine its the same impulse that made the parent poster so passionate about Brazil's problems.
I am not a nationalist, I lived abroad, but I think Brasil is a modern nation, with many infrastructure problems (US has infrastructure problems too, hence the recent blackout) and a big poverty problem, that is the greatest problem around here.
the horrible corruption in the brazilian police is hardly a new topic...
which police? we have 2 police corps for each of the 27 states: PM (military police, the ones who get the 911 calls) and Policia Civil (judiciary police, the ones who investigate crimes), plus the Federal Police. some of these corporations are better than others, varies from state to state, but most policemen I know and I worked with are good people, trying to do the best job they can with the infrastructure problems they have. Police here is not the criminal organization people tend to think it is.
It's interesting, because we don't have the propaganda machine the USian state has (cops always heroes in movies and tv series). Worse, we have an anti-propaganda (I was living in Spain and in the "worlds wildest police videos" tv show they showed a 2-year old scene of the shooting of innocents in the Baixada Fluminense by PM's, as if it had just happened, and saying "this is Brasilian police!", when it's certainly not)
Finally, I must say: come and visit us! Forget about Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo, come and stay in Fortaleza, Porto Seguro, Florianopolis, or if you are not a beach person, come visit our serras in Minas Gerais, the Pantanal, the Amazonia. I am not a nationalist, but we do have some beautiful places to visit, and in fact many foreigners don't leave because,
It seems to me that you have saudade, the mixture of the sadness/melancholy, to quote your words, we have when we miss something, someone, or someplace
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
Hostility on Slashdot: It amazes me that when someone makes a mistake on Slashdot, someone else, often an anonymous cowherd, will attack with extreme hostility, as the AC has done in the parent comment above.
The quoted article says 79: The AC quotes the Washington Times. The article he quotes says, "In 1991, when the number of homicides in the District peaked at 482, the rate was 79.42 killings per 100,000 residents." I had remembered 77, but the worst was 79. My information was old; I don't often follow DC's homicide statistics. I am very happy that those who run the District of Columbia have reduced the homicide rate there.
I've made a point in the grandparent comment above, that some things are better in Brazil. The point stands. I don't have time to investigate the AC's other statements, I'm very busy now. However, I think the homicide rate quoted for Rio is very old. Some years ago, a mayor was elected who reduced the rate, as the District of Columbia has done.
Monday i meet Stallman in his speak (in sao paulo)
... :-)
His explain many things about Patent and CopyRight..
Governament don't thing replace all software to Free Software at time.. This should done by steps...
Here in Sao Paulo, the Governament create the caller "TELECENTRO", where people who never use a computer can use... It's only can be done by Free Software...
Here many people try the Free Software work...
Sorry my english
Does GNU/linux have a theme song? How about Brazil? that is if it's free.
As a IT worker here in Brazil, I can say the following: 1) Posts saying that Brazil goverment is just replacing pirate MS products for free ones are trolls.... I've worked with 4 Goverment agencies (hell, my first job was at one of them) and I can say that most of all software are proper licensed. Brazil home users don't care much about piracy issues, but corporations and the goverment sure do (MS-Brazil could sue ANY goverment agency for gazzilion dollars if they found pirate software is being used.... In fact, most places have a "select" contract with them [volume licenses]). So, "not renewing" means *SURPRISE* NOT RENEWING* the licenses PS: This is the home of our beloved Marcelo Tosetti (tosseti?) which is the current mantainer. 2) "this will take away jobs/money. lie... 2 of the places i've seen that are already in the migration process are using conectiva linux (http://www.conectiva.com.br/) which is a Brazilian RedHat based distro. They PAY for their copies (mostly to get tech support/etc). This is money that would be otherwise going to MS 3) Goverment migrating to OpenSource makes a HUGE difference, as it allows other companies (or corporations) that have to interact with the goverment (exchanging documents/etc/etc) to use OSS. A while back most downloadable documents on goverment webpages were in DOC format, now they're mostly PDF or pure HTML, which is good... But email-exchanged documents are still using DOC/etc. Hmmm I think this is it for now :)
I for one, welcome our new hot grits... PROFIT!
Basically, Microsoft is hoping that the king will die in the next year. And that the MS addicts will remain addicts and forget that there are alternatives.
Don't forget: Brazilian businesses who work with the government now will probably be "enticed" to use OSS, simply because the cost is negligible and the government will want certain file formats/protocols (probably open, but why not use the same tool that the government is using... it's free, after all). This will "free up" even more money than just government spending, businesses in Brazil will start using more and more OSS as the expertise grows.. and at some point, windows and MS office will no longer be de facto standards.
This is what Microsoft fears, and what will happen, assuming the current plans stay on track.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
More about Brazil:
Psychologist Robert Levine of the University of California studied numerous large cities, and found Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is the kindest large city in the world. The outcome of the research mentioned in the articles below is not surprising to anyone who has been there:
Below is my translation of this article on the BBC Brazil web site:
Rio de Janeiro tem o povo mais solcito do mundo, diz pesquisa
http://www.bbc.co.uk/portuguese/noticias/030618_r
Mr. Robert Levine is certainly correct that Rio is very friendly, but his study ignores other facts. People in Rio are often happy, often flirting and kissing on the streets, and they joke a lot.
The BBC article discusses research reported in New Scientist magazine:
The Kindness of Strangers
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDe
_______________________________
Translation of the BBC article:
_______________________________
Rio de Janeiro has the most helpful people in the world, research says.
June 18, 2003 - Published 21:46 GMT
Atmosphere influences behavior, study affirms.
In spite of the violence, Rio de Janeiro is the metropolis with the kindest people found by researchers who studied 23 of the largest cities on the planet.
[My note: The phrase "In spite of the violence" is due to drug violence. Rio's reputation for violence is also due to media hype and apparently rivalry between the citizens of Sao Paulo and Rio. In actuality, the violence in Rio is not worse than other large cities. As in apparently all cities, most of the violence is in the areas where poor people live.]
The ranking was the result of research by psychologist Robert Levine of the University of California. According to him, blind people always receive aid to cross the Carioca [culture of Rio] streets, and invariably there is somebody willing to return a pen that another person dropped on the ground.
The Cariocas were ahead of the residents of Copenhagen (7th place), Stockholm (12th), Rome (16th) and New York (22nd), that were found to be less helpful.
In New York, for instance, the researchers led by Levine found that in only 28% of the cases somebody offers to help a person who limps whose belongings fell to the ground.
Good Latins
In Bangkok, in Thailand, a blind man will only be helped to cross the street in 42% of the cases.
The city that had the worst behavior in the Good Samaritan's index was Kuala Lampur, in Malaysia, that received 23rd placement in the ranking.
The best cities in the study were the cities of Iberian origin.
The capital of Costa Rica, San Jos, was second. Madrid was sixth, Mexico City, ninth, and San Salvador, the tenth.
"In general, we found that the people in cities in which Portuguese and Spanish is spoken tend to be more helpful", Levine said in his study.
Well it's not ALL beautiful, because you make the same mistake as all the MS-bashers out there make. MS isn't the ONLY company that makes shrink-wrapped software (and it's not a small market). Second there's a huge market out there that, while it isn't shrinked-wrapped in the sense, that you'll see it on a store shelf. It is as far as it being software already made for a purpose, and it is usually bundled with a service contract. More money than self-wrapped, but less than a custom solution. That market will take a hit as well as the shrink-wrapped market (which BTW OSS still is only a minimal player).
Also while there may be some job creation. It will not be as high as you think (customization or not).
Throw in all the effects of globalization, and things aren't as rosy as you wish them to be.
"BTW, not trolling at all, but I always argued that these same arguments apply to piracy. Hopefully after discussions like this people will understand that stealing is not always stealing. Sometimes it's free investment for the economy."
1-And who should be making that decision? The one who's pirating, or the one who's stuff is being pirated?
2-If pirates are so gung-ho about helping the economy? Then they should use their own money to do so, and not unwilling participants.
lol! First of all, it was a joke. Second of all, I've been to that country twice, for a total of about 2 months. I know more about Brazil than you ever will.
I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. Thank you.
I found your posting REALLY funny in the truest sense.
It wording you use, pyramid scheme, which is in fact what it is. The pryamid scheme is not that bad, so long as everybody benefits. It is when the scheme gets out of whack only a few benefit.
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
I'm from Brazil and last year I've worked for people from PT, president Lula political party. There is real interest on free software not just as a way to reduce costs or developing brazilian programmers.
Sao Paulo is now giving public internet access to schollars with a linux distributio in old pc's . In the middle of Bahia, in a very poor village called Valente there is a cooperative of rural workers that created a provider to sell internet access to the "riches" via modem and (U$10 month) and provides to the poor free and cheap access in a kind of cyber cafe. Free software server side. Windows and Linux mixed desktop side. With Internet they export to Denmark!
It seems like a way to make easier to people to have contact with PCs. In big cities like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo or in small villages as Valente the adoption of Free Software promotes digital inclusion to people that has not heard about F.S.F or Microsoft.
Just for the record, I've read Atlas Shrugged a few times, I love capitalism, I am not pro-communism, and I think open source is good for a lot of things including making money. Possibly if Brazil has a similar number of smart people as other countries they will be able to take advantage of building on knowledge and creating new solutions, instead of duplicating efforts and paying some American software billionaire more money.
As for free connectivity, this is not only possible it is de rigeur at most national universities around the world in case you haven't noticed. Of course it costs money. But this is really very little money in the scheme of things, the important thing is "free to the end user/student/programmer/small company" and it can be paid for with a tiny bit of taxes, or possibly even gotten really for free from a company which wants other things in return.
Anyway I don't see any reason to pursue this flamebait any more I just am doing this for posterity.