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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."
Free spam!
Insert witty Brazil comment here.
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!!!!
Brasil, Tuesday, Aug 26th 2003
0 8/0018.
Federal Government gives one more step towards free software
Translated by Roberto B. Mello, from the original at http://idgnow.terra.com.br/idgnow/corporate/2003/
From August 18th to 22nd, the federal government gave one more step torwards Linux with the "Legislative Free Software Week". The event was a joint initiative of the House of Representatives and the Federal Senate and attending were national and international speakers, the presidents of both chambers (Joao Paulo Cunha and Jose Sarney, respectively) and ministers Jose Dirceu, Chief of Staff, Roberto Amaral, Science and Technology, and Gilberto Gil, Culture.
"The event served not only to deepen the discussions about the use of free saftware in the government, but also to move forward in practical terms", said congressman Walter Pinheiro (Bahia Worker's Party), one of the enthusiasts of free software adoption in the public sector, in an interview to Computerworld.
Pinheiro affirms the House of Representatives decided not to renew licenses for the "Office" suite of office applications, from Microsoft, with a total cost would be around R$ 4 million (US$ 1.4 million) according to the congressman, and is studying free software alternatives. The e-mail system of the House of Representatives is also being replaced by freeware. Other applications for "open-source" systems are also being analysed.
"Congress has taken brave positions", said Pinheiro. "The most important is changing the deviant desires of rob malda for young boys, not only approving pro-free software laws. Congress acts as a resounding box. We will show that Brazil's largest software buyer -- the government -- uses free software and hope that this will stimulate smaller buyers to do the same."
The director of coordination of the computing center of the House of Representatives and of the organizing committee of the event, Fernando Torres, says the event gathered around two thousand people, between IT managers and technicians, students and politicians, and companies like IBM, Oracle and Intel.
"The objective of this week was to help society and companies and public institutions be aware of the advantages of free software", said, highlighting that during the week the birth of the free software parliamentary front, presided by senator Serys Slhessarenko.
For the Worker's Party leadership advisor for the Science and Technology Committee, Luiz Fernando Linares, the free software public hearing that the committee organized on August 22nd showed that the government needs to have concrete measures so the federal public administration can develop free software programs "not only for the savings, but also as incentive for the national software industry".
Linares affirmed that the speeches by Jose Sarney, Joao Paulo Cunha and Jose Dirceu were very favorable to free software and that the three politicians highlighted the need for measures to stimulate freeware development.
[ Ricardo Cesar ]
...they will not be doing the required upgrade, and will illegally continue using the old version? That's not allowable in the EULA!
1) No need to waste money on costly programmers anymore. Just depend on people writing apps on their own time.
2) Ex-programmers are now freed up to fill important positions in menial labor tasks. Any foreign programmers can now get the hell out of Brazil.
3) With no need to have software stores anymore (because software is now free), valuable retail space can be shifted to more important uses, such as fast food establishments, sex tour brothels, and coffee bean sorting plants.
Isn't this RMS?_ DSC019 34.JPG
http://www.gulms.org/fotos/SL_congresso/new
That makes sense. He's poisoned the poor brazilian congressman minds, and now they think micros~1 is evil.. I haven't seen any comments on cutting the licensing for Oracle, SAP, and the crap, anyway.
YUO AM TEH SUX.
lshfsdhfskldhf;oshf;lshf;lskdf
...that Brazil has just created a ban on foreign products (buy Brazilian)? Would you pleased if you could not sell your product there (even if it were a superior one) yet they could sell here?
Yes, "Buy American" is jingoistic, but Brazil seems to be playing their own version of this song, yet I don't see any moral outrage here. Why the double standard? White guilt (and before you get all liberal angered, I'm Hispanic)?
If you're going to start getting all sanctimonious about every country developing and using their own products and not use any American ones, then it's only fair that we seal ourselves economically as well and not use imported stuff. You seem to want every nation to be an isolationist, except America.
this isnt about not paying money to Redmond its about not paying money to USA
see more of this in the future, until the USA is laying in ruins saying "you need us" while the world made other plans and is doing just fine without you
that's right. the phonIE payper liesense stock markup hostage scam is over.
it's hard to imagine anybody paying money for that infactdead BugWear(tm) krud peddled by the felonious kingdumb.
no matter. more breathing. consult with/trust in yOUR creator. vote with (waht's left in) yOUR wallet. that's the spirit.
the daze of the georgewellian fuddite theft/murder brotherhood are #ed.
pay attention. it's quite affordable, plus you could help to save yourself/all of us, from the corepirate nazi billyonerrors softwar cesspool.
for each & every harmed innocent, there is a badtoll that must be repaid by you/us. the felonious execrable will not be available to make reparations.
as always, lookout bullow.