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IBM, Brazilian Government Launch Linux Effort
chriscooper1470 writes "Here is an update to the Brazilian Government Continues Push for Free Software. Brazil has become the latest country this week to show its support for Linux. Following moves by the UK and Russia, the government of Brazil announced Friday that it has signed a letter of intent with IBM pledging to develop initiatives that will promote the use of Linux in the Latin American country."
No, you're partially wrong.
. softwarelivre.org/
... but we give a lot of value to FREEDOM. But if you don't know what is freedom anymore... I'm sorry, you really will not understand what I am saying...
Yes, maybe we get a check from M$.
But NO, we will not use it, as expected. I say that because this time we have the right person in the right place, and the person is there. So, forget. I know the guy, the guy is my friend and I can surely say that this time we move.
BTW, it was already happening... it's just confirmed right now. It's not something like others "We're evaluating the possibilities... by far 2010 we will move". It's going on!
http://www.softwarelivre.gov.br/
http://psl-sp
http://www.softwarelivre.org/
IE: We have one of the big projects to take people to the internet, it's called "Telecentros", which uses LTSP (http://www.ltsp.org), Gnome, Mozilla, and OpenOffice.org to provide FREE internet access to +250,000 users (almost all are poor people that never had a chance to use computers in their lives).
Also, just to explain to people who didn't understand it yet: That is NOT related to TCO, license fees... it's about freedom. Freedom to let your people live. We give a shit about TCO, "de facto" standards (M$),
Yours truly,
Gustavo Sverzut Barbieri
Next week the Brazilian Government will get fat check for $300 Million for its schools and government. Next they will the option to purchase Windows Xp and Office 2003 for the low low price of two coconuts.
Very good point!
Yet I believe the odds for Linux in Brazil today are much better than one would expect from looking the same country a year ago, or from looking at other Latin American countries.
In the last semester of 2002 a new president, named Lula, was elected in Brazil. He is the first left-wing president to have a chance of finishing a mandate (democratic institutions being now more solid than in the sixties). So, President Lula comes from the left, from the traditional government opposition, and his party, PT- Partido dos Trabalhadores (Worker's Party) has always had a discourse and a posture which included:
1) Anti-Corruption
2) Antagonism with big corporations and
3) Nationalism
If you add the three points above, and give them some credit, you will see why I am optimistic about the chances of Linux threading forth in Brazil. I do not want to advocate that those guys (or anyone) will "do the right thing"(TM).
But there is certainly room for hope.
Quem a paca cara compra, paca cara pagará.
Well the fact that your posting as Anonymous Coward automatically takes away any credibility that you had. But lets pretend that you did post like a man...or a woman (i've never met a man so bitchy so i'm forced to wonder). I've successfully installed linux on the crapiest and oldest computers that i've ever had my hands on. Its always runs like a baby if you know what your doing. And dont knock the command line, its more powerul then a gui could ever imagine. Regardless, linux wasn't made for gui's and if u want, there are great patches that increase responsivness in the gui. Also linux is becoming more and more the choice for embeded applications because it isn't bloatware like windows. Linux is faster and made to do real work that requires power and detail, often times gui's hide most of the detail or make it hard to get to. Linux not only is faster, smaller, and more secure, but you can configure it however you want. And the best part is, if its still not small enough for you, you can go edit the source and take out whatever you want. Well i'm gonna stop wasting my time now and try to forget about your ignorant post while I sleep. You go have fun getting infected with your unbloated Internet explorer (ha) and get taken over by some script kiddie with some activex thing he wrote up while on the crapper, or go check your email with outlook and be sure to open up that one that says "I love you", or better yet, just keep your computer on long enough and the next RPC vulnerability will eventually come around and get you. As for me, I'm sticking with linux. Oh yea and one more thing, WinXP boots so fast because of you computer specs, go try and install WinXP on a computer from '97, and when you fail miserably, install linux so you have a good working computer that is compatible and capable of doing modern things. -Steve
given that we are seeing lots of governments adopting or considering adopting F/OSS, how long before document and data interchange in its current form (read: MS Office) becomes enough of a hassle that consumers and businesses will demand software that conforms to open data interchange standards?
The problem is, there isn't really a suitable format for office documents available just now. The leading candidate there is probably the OASIS Open Office XML Format standardization effort, however I have no idea if that project is progressing in a timely way.
Have you got your LWN subscription yet?