Linux in the Developing World

Norsemann writes "Peter Spotts of the Christian Science Monitor has some very interesting things to say about the latest wave of Linux adoptions throughout Asia and beyond. He hits on some important points about not only China's role in Open Source but the 'global' role in Open Source... Perhaps the best is still yet to come." The BBC also has a nice story about Brazil using Linux in cybercafes.

Comments

Hmmm...

[mirko]

I have not RTFA but I would imagine this is about the ever-increasing market share of GNU/Linux.

Now, I am not actually sure we'll see the day when everybody and their mothers will run Linux as we know it.

I somehow think that, in the end, Linux will indeed be everywhere but hidden below some proprietary interfaces... Kinda like BSD-under-Aqua = OSX.

I wish I were wrong but it would still be a nice thing to see both systems coexist this way.

What's the win here? This is not because it's OSS

[Osrin]

We're seeing usage and adoption here because it's free. On the face of it adoptions like this look good but there are no long term plans to educate or update the software that is being used in many of these scenarios... the reality is that vast chunks of the developing world will be dumped in 2003 with little or no sustainable technology future.

Re:Who will build our digital future?

[Junks Jerzey]

The same type of people who built our digital past..

here's a hint, it wasn't megacorp!

No offense, but have you ever heard of IBM? Or DEC? Or Intel? Or Texas Instruments?

Re:Open Source in developing countries

[neiffer]

I think you are missing the point. Sure, $40 is a bargain to the Western pocketbook, but I assure you it is a hefty price for our brothers and sisters in Thailand. $40 may be several months salary.

Re:I am in Indonesia at the moment

[GigsVT]

didn't know what localhost referred to :P) but this is what you get without an affordable public education system...

That's a serious non sequitor. In my 12 years of "free" public education, I never took a class that taught anything about TCP/IP.

Most computer knowledge isn't taught, it's learned.

Re:Linux's best quality?

[SgtChaireBourne]

The Brazilian government is up and going, too. There may be little or no correlationl, but stock took off there, but has been dragging everywhere else. I'd think less of it, but two of the larger European OSS nations, Germany and France, are showing better optimism than the UK which has been hamstrung by MS on a few occasions in the last 5 years. It's still possible to drop MS and restore the lead in IT that the UK used to enjoy.

The same economic benefits apply to rich nations as well as developing ones. However, I'd expect several orders of magnitude greater benefit.

Re:Open Source in developing countries

[rbp]

Microsoft has been engaged in an some agressive pricing tactics here in Brazil for a while now, including in our major universities. They even give their software for free (you know, the first one is always free...), if they think it'll pay off in the future.

It is therefore important to make the decision people (including the government) realize that price is not the reason why free software is better, specially in schools and government-related projects. Hey, it's not even an important reason, in many cases.

They have to understand that free software is better because its quality is superior; because we get to see what's inside, so we learn more; we don't have to take anyone's word on its keeping our private data, well, private; we don't depend on a single vendor; we can even start developing our own version, based on what's available, if we want to, thus having complete control and developing our own technology.

It's just a better idea, pricing aside. If "they" believe price is the only advantage, we're on very thin ice...

Re:What if SCO wins?

[ajs318]

Thanks to something called "sovereignty" {the international version of "an Englishman's home is his castle"}, if a person in country A does something in country A which is not against the laws of country A but would be against the laws of country B had that person done it on country B's soil, the authorities in country B cannot take any action against that person.

So even if the GPL is found invalid in the USA {and it can't be - read it, it's airtight} then it still carries weight in the rest of the world. If SCO are to be believed, Linux is in the public domain anyway {and thus can never be copyrighted by anyone}. But it's quite likely that, if anything enters the public domain, it will be SCO UnixWare - either by court order, or by natural lapse of copyright what with the case having dragged on for so long.

Re:I am in Indonesia at the moment

[varjag]

That's a serious non sequitor. In my 12 years of "free" public education, I never took a class that taught anything about TCP/IP.

It taught you at least to read, write and some math, which is a prerequisite for learning any technology, but you seem to be taking it for granted.