Iraq's Open Source Possibilities

An anonymous reader writes "In a Linux Journal article, Iraq's 2 person LUG describes the software consumer market in Iraq today, and their hopes for educating the masses about open-source software: 'Iraq is now a blank, unformatted hard disk and can be loaded with anything. Everything is open in Iraq right now. There are no regimented standards or massive expenditure in a particular monopoly's software'."

Comments

As much as I would like to see...

[Kethinov]

As much as I would like to see O/S everywhere in the world, I think that what Iraq needs before anything else at the moment is a stable government.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[Anonymous Coward]

How about electricity, food, and running water?

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[Kethinov]

Obviously, but you don't get electricity, food, running water, open source software, and the internet without a stable government.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[psychogentoo]

*nod*

Right now, they mean it literally when they say "somone set us up the bomb."

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[setzman]

Not saying we (the US) is doing a good job, but do you really think armed rebels would set up a fair democratic election? That would be the day

Wouldn't the American colonists who would later rebel fit into this category? They were armed rebels against a foreign occupier (Great Britain), correct? Or perhaps I'm just a history major who knows nothing about history. Yes, not all of our elections have been fair, but for you to say that this is impossible is totally incorrect.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[poolmousenyc]

as long as terrorists keep the iraqi people in the dark, they'll be able to brainwish them. allow these people internet access and risk losing the ability to get them to blow themselves up for your own purposes. i don't see it happening. terrorists have nothing to gain and everything to lose by allowing people access to the truth. poolmousenyc

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[yarbo]

Linux doesn't have a kernel, Linux is a kernel.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[jc42]

... what Iraq needs before anything else at the moment is a stable government.

Well, one way not to get stability is to turn over the computing infrastructure to another big American corporation that made big contributions to Bush's election campaign. It doesn't take a deep understanding of politics to realize where that approach leads.

Guess which big computer corporation was a big contributor ...

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[Planesdragon]

Wouldn't the American colonists who would later rebel fit into this category?

No. They were democratic first, rebels later. In fact, the very first "rebellious" acts that were more than mere protest were the democratic consideration and then adoption of the Delcaration of Independance, followed by a war, followed by one bad government, and then finally followed by the adoption of the U.S. Constitution in (IIRC) 1789.

They were armed rebels against a foreign occupier (Great Britain), correct?

Again, no. Most colonists considered themselves "Britains" or "Englishmen" as much or moreso than they considered themselves "Americans."

Or perhaps I'm just a history major who knows nothing about history.

You don't, if you think that gureilla fighters with no political base have ever set up a democratic election. Historically, when no government has been in place and the guerillas win, they resort to rule by the warriors--why do you think that from Japan to Europe, the dominant pre-democratic forms of government were essentially rule by the military?

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[GreyWolf3000]

Well, one way not to get stability is to turn over the computing infrastructure to another big American corporation that made big contributions to Bush's election campaign. It doesn't take a deep understanding of politics to realize where that approach leads.

I'm gonna call you on that. I don't believe MS is a huge contributor of the Bush campaign, and I don't believe that by using Microsoft software, Iraq forfeits their chance at a stable government.

This seems to be more corporate-demonizing hogwash that gets modded up here at /. Honestly, even if MS did make unusually large contributions to the Bush campaign, I fail (in my shallow understanding of politics) to see how that translates to an unstable government in Iraq. Please enlighten me.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[child_of_mercy]

government's themselves can be unstable without causing amjor problems.

Many European parliament's see several Governments in a year as parliamnetary majorities shift and collapse without a break in the provision of essential services.

strong independent intitutions and the rule of law might be what you're looking for.

the point is that a hell of a lot of things are needed to make what we'd view as a decent society.

A starting list for mine would be (in rough order of importance):

Agricultural Surplus,
Freedom (expression, speech, religion, assembly, association),
Accountability,
Transparency,
Rule of Law
Strong independent institutions (within the Rule of Law)
Democracy

Once you have all those then free markets can flourish and people can buy what they want.

But careful who you say that to.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[nihilogos]

Their rebels are fighting because they hate us, or they want Saddam back. ie, they want a government based on power back, not one that is benificial for the people.

How the hell do you know what they're fighting for? Did CNN tell you?

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[nounderscores]

What would an OS govt be like? Everybody (Every community) can edit the constitution and laws, try them out and then upload them to the CVS?

"This just in from Amsterdam, the Weed feature is nearing beta! Everybody download it, and hit the wiki."

These guys are trying, but they don't have enforcement powers tied to a wiki page.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[frdmfghtr]

This seems to be more corporate-demonizing hogwash that gets modded up here at /. Honestly, even if MS did make unusually large contributions to the Bush campaign, I fail (in my shallow understanding of politics) to see how that translates to an unstable government in Iraq. Please enlighten me.

Directly, you are correct--it does not translate to an unstable government. Indirectly, it could give Microsoft an edge on the building of the technology/information infrastructure. It would be yet another big American corporation sinking its meathooks into the money pot that is being used to rebuild Iraq, leaving the Iraqi brain pool out of the picture.

Consider this example. American firms estimated that it would take many months and millions of dollars to rebuild Iraqi cement factories, which are crucial to the rebuilding effort. Intrepid Iraqis did it in a few months for less than $100k. How? They didn't set lofty goals for state-of-the-art equipment and facilities. They cannibalized parts from remaining production lines to get at at least one production facility operating. This facility can, in turn, generate revenue through the sale of cement for use in the reconstruction (as opposed to expensive imports) and put that revenue into the factory and workers' salaries.

Likewise, why should we as taxpayers spend millions of dollars to import the labor and material into Iraq when there exists local talent to do the same job? If they're not as skilled, fine. TRAIN them to do the job, don't do it for them. Teach a man to fish and all that...

In short--use local resources (material and talent) to do the work as much as possible, and bring in outside talent and material only if needed. Iraq is NOT a feeding frenzy for big corporations looking to get a big government check (even if it looks like it is turning into that); the money should be a resource to help the Iraqi people rebuild their own country.

As a taxpayer, I'd much prefer to see my tax dollars spent to help the IRAQIS rebuild Iraq, not Halliburton, Microsoft, etc. as nauseum.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[clem]

Linux has a stable kernel, that counts for something right?

However, the biggest obstacle is that Linux hasn't been ported to run on rubble.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[ericspinder]

Ok, I was a little knee-jerk in my last post, and really did take this post out of context (really badly). That said, Democracy in America did not begin with the revolutionary war. All of the states had legislators who were elected by a segment of the population (usually landed men). Many of these legislators were the Founding Fathers. They weren't the typical "armed rebels", but thoughtful, intellegent people who debated the future of this (the US) country.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[Fishstick]

>How the hell do you know what they're fighting for? Did CNN tell you?

You're right - it's really hard to know what they're fighting for as they haven't really gone to any trouble to communicate their goals to CNN or FOX or anyone.

Damn, if they would only take the time to sit down with Aaron Brown or Britt Hume or somebody like that and just let the world know what their intent is (be it to oust the occupying US forces so they can set up a militant theocracy, to bloody our noses at the cost of their own lives or whatever ) we could all just stop guessing what they are all about! ;-)

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[aled]

The fact is we know what the iraqis think because there is an interesting poll made by Oxford Research International that somehow hasn't seem to be too much know in US. Wonder why, had to watch CNN :-)
Some quotes:
"50 percent said the United States will hurt Iraq; only 35.3 percent said the United States would help"
"while 42.3 percent of Iraqis say the best thing that happened to them was the demise of the Saddam regime, 35.1 percent said the worst thing that happened was the war, the bombings, and the defeat of the Iraqi army."
"Asked how much confidence they had in U.S. and British forces in Iraq, 56.6 percent of respondents said they had none at all and 22.2 percent said they didn't have very much confidence, while only 7.6 percent had ``a great deal.''"

Guardian article.
Boston article

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[aled]

So much wisdom and so little knowledge of geography.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[vandan]

For the most part, they aren't attacking us. The attacks are coming from a minority of Saddam loyalists or foreign Islamic terrorists.

You've been watching too much Fox news. There are no Saddam loyalists. The freedom fighters are just that - fighting for control of their own country. You can't dismiss as everyone who is anti-US as an Islamic terrorist, because you'd be branding practically the rest of the world as Islamic terrorists. And remember: one person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[ericspinder]

Bing, Bing, Bing, opps, your half right. I was going to say more than 150 years (California), but I thought of the Spanish American War) as a gotcha. One of the conquests of that war, the Phillipies could arguably be called a colony. But if you consider colonization to include "importing" population with an eye on keeping the place then Guam or Puerto Rico.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[Guppy06]

"America has not "conlonized" a country we defeated in war."

If you don't want to consider the various possessions that fell into our lap after the Spanish-American War (Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, etc.), there's still the whole "northern half of Mexico" bit.

"I'll accept you as knowlegable about (American) history if you can give me an example of American "colonial expansion", due to war. I can think of one, but it was more than a hundred years ago."

I'm sure some people living on Okinawa feel as if they were "colonized" after an American victory. There's also the interesting fact that Japan is the only country in the world to have a foreign military base in its capital (we might not "take over," but we certainly don't leave)

We took the Panama Canal Zone from Panama a few seconds after we "liberated" Panama from Colombia. Sure, that was a while ago, but we only just gave it back. There's also the coup staged in Hawaii, which we only recently apologized for (a little late, I would say...). If you're willing to count covert wars, Iran can fit into that category as well.

Of course, these can be written off as "little" issues, since most of our expansion was during the Nineteenth Century. But did we stop because we're now nice guys, or simply because we're big enough? From the beginning of the Twentieth Century to July 4, 1946, from St. Thomas to Luzon the sun did not set in the United States. And even today it's still damn close.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[shaitand]

no, only the maintainers and a selected few actually have access to the CVS and they don't neccesarily have to commit the patches. However anyone is free to fork and there is no such thing as national secrets or classified.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[dasmegabyte]

So...you're saying that the revolutionaries fighting American oppression of their nation in Iraq don't have the ability to debate or hold land? What are you basing this on -- first hand experience, or wild guesses?

I'd have to say that thoughtful people with a stake in independence would be the first to fight against an enemy only interested in filling its own pockets and proving its supremacy to a world that doesn't care. Cowards who didn't care about their nation would have given up when their power structure was disassembled and their leader drugged and captured. And the power hungry wouldn't be wasting their resources on a fool's battle...they'd be fleecing a position in the New Regime.

No...I'm fairly sure the "insurgents" are fighting for the same reason we are: they think they are right, and that this is the only way to protect their way of life. Such a shame we're both wrong...a shame that 2 American soldiers and 30+ Iraqis have to die because neither group can lighten up and accept that there's always going to be some worrisome uncertainty in life -- something most of us learned in middle school.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[dasmegabyte]

Likewise, why should we as taxpayers spend millions of dollars to import the labor and material into Iraq when there exists local talent to do the same job? If they're not as skilled, fine. TRAIN them to do the job, don't do it for them. Teach a man to fish and all that...

I agree. But: remember that we put Halliburton Oil in charge of fueling our vehicles over there. Haliburton imported their own men, licensed their own contractors, and it ended up costing us $2.65 per gallon, while the locals (from Kuwait) were willing to deliver it for $1.06.

I guarantee the "computing infrastructure" will be the same type of deal. Remember that article from a few months ago? About how American companies were planning to redo Iraqi cell service in CDMA, when the rest of the world including the surrounding area is all GSM? See, American companies bought in to CDMA, now they want a new market for it. Whispers in a few ears get this added as a nondescript rider to some otherwise benign bill...

Hell of a way to break out of a recession. Whatever happened to ingenuity? Oh that's right, takes too long and makes the millionaires nervous. Guess we'll have to rely on good old American GRAFT.

Vote democrat in 2004. It doesn't even matter who.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[1iar_parad0x]

This discussion reminds me about the fall of the Soviet Union. The communist hard-liners attempted to shut down the media. Unfortunately, these men were so out of date; they didn't realize that the media was still able to communicate via fax machine. (This link [cato.org] points to a book review of a popular book on the subject.) That ability allowed reporters to communicate to the outside despite the crackdown of the Soviet government. Those communications ignited the entire country. All the eyes of Russia, and the world, were focused on Moscow. They were specifically focused on Boris Yeltsin. Modern technology enabled this communication. The Iraqis need information about as much as they need water. Imagine if every day of your life, you've learned to live in fear. You've been taught to keep your mouth shut, you're eyes turned away, and you allegiance sworn to a mad dictator. Add to the fact that even if you do heed all these warnings, you may still be randomly charged with treason.

The Iraqis who wish to be free need to organize and communicate. They need to learn about the outside world. Heck, even Saddam was shocked when he saw how openly we as Americans criticize our President. He was under the belief, that our government suppressed dissent (especially unflattering satire) like he did. Frankly, the Internet is probably the best, low-cost method to promote open communication. Take a look at countries like Brazil or India. They're IT is run on Linux (except the most high-end). They still use many low-end PCs. OSS fanaticism aside; I think in this case OSS can be quite useful. Isn't the free flow of information what true hacking is about?

On a slightly (perhaps greatly) off-topic, but related note:

I know we complain about "fascism" in this country. That's a joke. The Iraqis have quite a few problems ahead. They're fighting real fascism. They don't have Thomas Jefferson or George Washington. They don't have a slow progression and long history of open dissent. What they do have is a sudden vacuum of power, arguing radical religious factions, and a severe lack of resources.

Drugs, sex, and Iraq
Why Iraq's neighbors want to see democracy fail
The rise of crime and vigilates

Unfortunately, I can't hunt down the specific article I wanted to link to. It discussed the sudden increase of crime [especially prostitution] (see articles above) in Iraq. It also discussed the rise of a radical Islamic movement looking to cleanse Iraqi society. They argue these vices/sins have been "unleashed"/"unchecked" by the Americans. I hate to say it, but this whole war is FAR from over.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[claudebbg]

It's really interesting to read that thread, mainly because I learn a lot on the US (more than on Irak or OSS).
When asked "give me an example of American colonial expansion this century", people tell about many places/times around WW2 (around Japan, but you can easily add Italy -still American soldiers not really to protect anymore-, Germany -there nearly are American cities-) but you just forget one of the closest colony: Cuba.
Remember that the US has a military base there ?
Remember that the whole country has been under blocus for years with no reasonnable arguments since the USSR are over.
Remembrer that in Cuba, in this Guantanamo base, the US keep some illegal prisoners from several countries with no judgement, no international justice involved ?
Basically, the self-knowledge of a country and its history by its citizen is the first sign of freedom/assumed democracy. May we wish that to Irak... and the US.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[mpe]

I do think that Iraq has one of the best chances of any Middle East country of creating a stable representational democratic government, something that is in short supply there. Ironicly enough Iran is closest to that mark now, but (I think) will soon be surpassed.

Iran actually had a democratic government, it was overturned and replaced with a tyrany, because it wasn't friendly to foreign oil companies.
A representative democratic Iraqi government is hardly likley to be friendly to the US or its corporations. Do you really think that the US, as occupying force, will allow such a government to come into existance?
Historically the US has opposed US unfriendly democratic governments and supported (financially and militarily) US friendly dictatorships and tyranies.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[mpe]

We took the Panama Canal Zone from Panama a few seconds after we "liberated" Panama from Colombia. Sure, that was a while ago, but we only just gave it back. There's also the coup staged in Hawaii, which we only recently apologized for (a little late, I would say...).

The "apology" came a century after first occupation. Actually it goes a little further and admits that Hawaii has never been part of the US. But that dosn't stop the US Government pretending it is from day to day. Even though the invasion of Hawaii took place at the time of the Spanish-American war Hawaii was an independent constitution Monarcy.

Of course, these can be written off as "little" issues, since most of our expansion was during the Nineteenth Century. But did we stop because we're now nice guys, or simply because we're big enough? From the beginning of the Twentieth Century to July 4, 1946, from St. Thomas to Luzon the sun did not set in the United States. And even today it's still damn close.

The claiming of Alaska and Hawaii as US states happened after 1946. The plebcite referendums carried out are invalid since a required option was omitted from the ballot. In the case of Hawaii things are also invalid because the rules used were intended for "territories" which had never been self governing.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[kmac06]

The infrastructure in Iraq is a HELL of a lot better now than it ever was under Saddam. I'm not going to quote articles about this b/c I don't give a damn about improving my excellent karma :), but I know there are some stories out there about army engineers bringing running water and electricity to villages in Iraq that *never* had them under Saddam. As far as food goes, if you think that more people are starving now than under Saddam, you're a fool.

Electricity was restored to most of the areas it was knocked out very quickly. The US went in to help the Iraqis, not to exploit them, despite what your tinfoil hat theories are.

There are some (very few, but some) legitimate arguments for why going into Iraq was a bad idea, but saying that Iraqis are worse off now than they were under Saddam is stupid.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[say]

I'm amazed how much you know about this. I won't claim that I know, but judging by the interviews and reporters I've seen from Iraq, many say they are far worse off at this moment. For instance, all prisoners were let out of jail when Saddam fell. A political and unfair law system may work better than no law at all... I've also seen a few interviews with people who say they used to have electricity, petrol, water and heating, but haven't got it anymore. I guess some people are better off, and some are not. Judging by the (quite extensive) coverage from Norwegian TV and radio, I believe most people are temporarily worse off. But then again, Norwegian media are probably communist.

Re:As much as I would like to see...

[kmac06]

I'm amazed how much you know about this.

I'm not sure if this was sarcastic or not, but I'll answer anyway.

The reason I know so much about this, and the true situation in Iraq, is because I do not get my news from the mainstream media. I certainly read a lot of articles in the mainstream press, but I doubt them, because of how wrong they often are (one example: CNN did not report all of the murders they knew about in Iraq, just so that Saddam would allow them to continue reporting inside Iraq. The truth didn't matter, only the ability to stay in Iraq). The person who gives a clear view on the facts in Iraq is Rush Limbaugh.

Rush picks up on the many reports of individual soldier/engineers reporting on these situations, as well as some of the reporters who go over there, and are shocked by how different the situation is from how the mainstream media reports it.

Yes, he is a somewhat biased person, but he certainly does not lie. He reports, and then gives his (very accurate) opinion. I'm guessing he is not broadcast in Norway, but if you want to listen to him you can go to rushlimbaugh.com.

would

[Anonymous Coward]

be nice to see linux there but m$ will probably make some big ass sponsoring deal...
---------
Beers and Boobies in a Game?

Re:would

[Capsaicin]

"be nice to see linux there but m$ will probably ..."

You can bank on m$ getting what it wants for Iraq. They didn't go in to Iraq to let some pinko Finnish free software take that market that rightfully belongs to a friendly megacorp.

Nerd friendly TLD....

[i_want_you_to_throw_]

It's .iq
Impress your friends with http://high.iq

Seriously though, it's a great article and Iraq is SO perfect right now to be the open course society from the get-go.

Adam did a great job writing this.

wait, you want to *not* sell them something?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ya, we'll give them something for free instead of taking there money/oil for something we tell them they must have. Sure, that will happen.
-Anonymous American.

Re:wait, you want to *not* sell them something?

[WasterDave]

Exactly. Were you not paying attention? The whole point of invading Iraq was to give contracts for it's rebuilding to American companies.

Do you see a German cellphone provider? Hmmm?
How about a French railway system going in?

Exactly. The yoosay and their allies invaded Iraq, the yoosay claims the prize. And as for giving it away? Pah! Hippies!

Dave

Re:wait, you want to *not* sell them something?

[aled]

Nobody forced US to start the war. Preventive war isn't a good argument else.

Re:wait, you want to *not* sell them something?

[1u3hr]

No, of course it isn't. It's much better to wait until the enemy attacks you first and causes massive casualties to both civilians and military

That's all true; but has nothing to do with Iraq. Saddam only wanted to kill Kurds, dissidents, and maybe some neighbours like Iran and Kuwait. Despite all Bush's propaganda, Saddam didn't support terrorists like bin Laden except in a token way, because he knew, as a basically secular leader, he was a prime target of religious fundamentalists, who want to rule the Middle East and who attack the US not as a prelude for invasion but to make them back off from meddling in their part of the world. There's a good case that bin Laden's strategy was to push the US into a massive retaliation against the Muslim world, which would destroy the credibility of moderates and US allies, allowing his cronies to take power. And similarly, that Cheney et al have wanted a big military presence in the ME, to keep pressure on the Saudis. But basing more troops in Saudi Arabia would make the royals (more) unpopular, so having them nearby in a client state is even better.

open source versus capitalism

[h4x0r-3l337]

Given that the US is already excluding foreign nations from lucrative rebuilding contracts in Iraq, I would expect the Bush Administration to frown upon this possible move to open source, and start pushing Microsoft and friends instead.

Re:open source versus capitalism

[Truth_Quark]

Especially considering the relationship between Microsoft and the NSA.

(Remember the "revealing our source code would threaten National Security" line?)

I would be very surprised if Microsoft lose this one.

Re:open source versus capitalism

[monadicIO]

What Microsoft? I only know BechtelOS and HalliburtonOS.

Re:open source versus capitalism

[pheared]

Given that the US is already excluding foreign nations who did not support the US led war from lucrative rebuilding contracts in Iraq

Granted I think it's a stupid policy move too, but those nations sound a little hypocritical now. We don't want you to go to war, and we'll blast you for it, but it's not fair that we can't profit from it.

Additionally, it's not the Bush Administration who would push M$, but rather the gigantic corporations that they will be giving the contracts to.

The whole thing is rotten.

Re:open source versus capitalism

[Knunov]

Given that those lucrative rebuilding contracts are funded by the U.S., they can restrict who gets to bid all they like.

It's U.S. taxpayer money, and as such, why the fuck shouldn't the U.S. get to choose to receives it?

You think if France (or Germany or ANY OTHER COUNTRY ON EARTH) dumped $18.6BN into rebuilding a country they would just open it up to foreigners for the taking?

Jackass.

Re:open source versus capitalism

[cheezedawg]

Given that the US is already excluding foreign nations from lucrative rebuilding contracts in Iraq

Um, no they aren't. They are excluding nations that obstructed any action in Iraq, but the more than 60 countries in the coalition are more than welcome to bid on the contracts.

If France and Germany had had their way, there wouldn't be ANY contracts to award in Iraq, so I don't know why they think they are entitled to some now.

Re:open source versus capitalism

[pheared]

You have to hand it to the Bush administration it really know how to make a bad situation worse.

If by that you mean: Knows how to make itself look really stupid and get the entire world to begin stereotyping all americans as warmongering monkeys, then yes, I am in agreement.

Re:open source versus capitalism

[monadicIO]

not the other 203 that supported the U.S.
203? I'd be impressed to see a list of countries that's just half as long. BTW, only countries that did send troops (and Saudi Arabia and Turkey) get to share the spoils. Rest of the countries get zilch.

Re:open source versus capitalism

[Knunov]

The original poster wasn't specifying the Open Source issue, so neither did my response.

I'm not a fan of Microsoft, either.

I run Linux AND I don't hate America - that is surely a paradox of some sort. I'm waiting to disappear in a puff of irony.

Re:open source versus capitalism

[Coneasfast]

Given that those lucrative rebuilding contracts are funded by the U.S., they can restrict who gets to bid all they like.

you are missing the point, these countries France, Germany, etc) are complaining because this is not what is best for the iraqi people, but only benefits those who did not oppose the war

if this was about contracts for USA only, i don't think these countries would complain as much

Re:open source versus capitalism

[child_of_mercy]

It's not about the best option.

You know little about computers but you've been landed the job giving out contracts.

note: your job is not to build a decent IT infrastructure, it's to hand out a contract to get someone else to build it.

There's that nice guy from a Microsoft based systems integrator.

You met him at a party at the embassy last month, you've played a round of golf with him.

he's invited you out to lunch somewhere nice today to discuss what his great big corporation, who your bosses also feel secure about, can do.

or you can take a risk, organise things yourself, get a bunch of smaller providers in on the job, take up the integration yourself.

You will probably deliver a better solution for the people of iraq.

you will also:

Not get invited to any more nice lunches
Hand back a big pile of cash that no-one would have objected if you spent it.
Live through a lot of sleepless nights as you hope your solution which no-one in your organisation has ever heard of, works.

This isn't about american government.

All large bureaucracies think this way.

(That's why it's the job of parliaments and CEO's to tell give their people direction and certainty)

Re:open source versus capitalism

[Trogre]

Only the three that armed Iraq

What, they're excluding themselves?

Re:open source versus capitalism

[VivianC]

Tell me, who supplied the chemical weapons's to Iraq that were used to kill those 80,000 Kurd's? Russian? French? Chinese? No. American.

Got something to back that up? According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the chemicals came from "Japan, FR Germany and other unspecified European countries..." It even states that US manufacture of the mustard gas has been ruled out: "The absence in the sample analysed in Sweden and Switzerland of polysulphides and of more than a trace of sulphur indicates that it is not of past US-government manufacture, for all US mustard was made by the Levinstein process from ethylene and mixed sulphur chlorides. That process is also said to have been the one used by the USSR. From similar reasoning, British-made mustard, too, can probably be ruled out, even though substantial stocks were once held at British depots in the Middle East."

Maybe you need to check your facts a bit. Here is the entire report for your reading pleasure.

German chemical companies did a lot of business with Iraq.

Re:open source versus capitalism

[Guppy06]

"Given that the US is already excluding foreign nations from lucrative rebuilding contracts in Iraq,"

Ah, the hazards of only getting your news from Slashdot. The DoD more or less backpedalled on that mere hours after that announcement (by putting the bidding on hold for "further review"), and there's been enough of a reverse on that policy that France and Germany are forgiving huge chunks of the Iraqi debt. Most of the media (including the ones who would be the last to believe the administration could be this shrewd or subtle) now seem to believe that the whole thing was a staged event to give James Baker a carrot to offer to the Paris Club, getting a promise to reduce Iraq's debt by giving them back something they never really lost to begin with.

You really should get out of the house every once in a while.

Re:open source versus capitalism

[Malcontent]

What makes these people the experts? Here what I do know.

During the time Saddam was gassing kurds and iranians he was a close ally of the US. We supplied him with weapons and more importantly intelligence. Our sattelites and spies informed him of iranian troop movements. Maybe you are right and he got the raw materials from other countries but he got the knowhow from the US.

Finally. After Saddam gassed the kurds and those awful pictures got transmitted the UN drafted a resolution condeming Saddam. The resolution never passed becasue the Reagan Administration (Reagan, Baker, Bush sr, Cheney etc) vetoed it.

I think that pretty much explains everything you need to know.

Fresh Hard Disk

[Veovis]

'Iraq is now a blank, unformatted hard disk and can be loaded with anything.

Spyware Cookies, Banners, Popups, and Porn, oh wait thats the United States

Potential!

[man_ls]

Perhaps a Linux vendor will spot free licenses and support and consultants, if the Iraqui provisional government agrees to purchase hardware from them.

Or, free on-site setup or something, if they agree to buy a support package.

Or, free everything, and then they'd get a lucrative governemnt contract.

Bidding

[Christoff84]

This mainly depends on which company wins the contract to re-build their IT/Communications systems. If a pro-microsoft company wins, then Iraq will be locked into proprietary software.

In true open source fashion...

[twoslice]

You can help Ashraf and Hasanen. It can be as simple as emailing a few URLs or offering to provide tech support or help in developing their website. Or you can mail them books, periodicals, and CDs. Or you can send them money, so they can fulfill their ambition to create Iraq's first Linux Center to demonstrate and train. The above statement says it all.

File System Format.

[saden1]

Lets just hope that whoever is formating the hard disk doesn't doesn't format it using FAT file system.

Iraq's OSS needs...

[Eberlin]

can wait a bit longer. The kind of stability they need right now isn't in a computer operating system, it's in a governing system. They also need stability in what we consider basic utilities -- electricity, running water, etc. It also helps not to have to worry about car bombs, suicide bombers, and other daily attacks.

If you look through Maslow's heirarchy of needs, a good, cheap, stable, tweakable operating system doesn't make it in the radar quite yet.

Obviously

[Scrameustache]

Unless Haliburton has recently gone into the software buisness, Microsoft will get any "reconstruction contract" involving computer infrastructures.

Then, guess who'll be in charge of "educating" the Iraqis in computer use?

I'm sure Bill's charity will donate a bunch of intel machines and "Trustworthy" OSs...

Sign of the times

[drinkypoo]

'Iraq is now a blank, unformatted hard disk and can be loaded with anything.

We used to just say, "we're going to turn your country into a parking lot." Now what is it, we're going to load a diagnostic and low level format your ass?

Time to help

[Anonymous Coward]

Whichever side of the political divide we stand on over Iraq, I don't think anyone could disagree now that if we can help here then it will do good for them.

We don't have to wait for a stable government, we can work on multiple fronts at the same time.

At least with Open Source we're not asking for anything and we're not just blindly giving, we're sharing. They have an equal right to be able to contribute to open source.

For those in the US, please also lobby your government to remove the restrictions that stop you sending Linux (and presumably *BSD) to Iraq whilst allowing MS, etc, to sell proprietory systems.

Chris down under

Proof of how simplistic most /.'ers are

[ShatteredDream]

Iraq doesn't have a stable government, economy or military and it is caught between Islamist/Islamofascist guerrillas and an international occupation force. Iraq needs political and economic stability more than anything else. We need to educate them on the benefits of non-violent and non-coercive political debate and discourse, not open source software. We need to educate them how to become a modern industrial country with an economy that isn't dependent on one industry. We need to train an army that is loyal to the country's constitution, not leaders.

Re:Proof of how simplistic most /.'ers are

[Atzanteol]

Can't a country do more than one thing at a time though? They need a *lot* of things. An internet infrastructure will be one of those. It's become a major part of doing business these days.

During the U.S. war for independence, the U.S. government fell into disarray as well (it didn't spring up over-night with all it's power and laws you know). And yet people still pursued other things during this 10-20 years. These two guys are doing what they *can* at this point.

Re:Proof of how simplistic most /.'ers are

[Jerf]

We need to educate them on the benefits of non-violent and non-coercive political debate and discourse, not open source software.

What do you think Open Source software is?

Think about it.

I wish.

[kid zeus]

Anyone else remember that Hillary Rosen, late of RIAA fame, has been helping draft Iraq's new Copyright law, despite the fact that there's been a very servicable one since 1971?

Check it out here.

If Halliburton can get away charging treble the market rate for delivering oil, I seriously doubt there won't be any corporate skullduggery involved in the framing of government contracts for something like computing.

Fat chance

[JoeShmoe]

Wasn't ex-RIAA head Hillary Rosen consulting with the Iraqi Governing Council on how to write the copyright section of the Iraqi constitution?

Why not just write a mandate for Trusted Computing to guarantee the security of any imported US content and guarantee a RIAA-type organization can end up in control of whatever Iraqi culture blooms?

Iraq presents an opportunity for a democracy to form that gains all the advantages of hindsight. It would be the chance to correct all of the mistakes that were made with Amercian democracy (such as ignorance of money's impact on all three branches or the constant war of state vs federal rights). Unfortunately, now that corporate American wields such control, it seems highly unlikely that any new "democracy" we spawn would follow noble, altruistic ideals but instead follow capitalist whatever-makes-trade-for-US-companies ideals.

Futher proof that there is no room for democratic ideals in Iraqi is that the Shiite majority would easily control any democratic system that was implemented, something that I'm sure the US will not tolerate.

- JoeShmoe
.

Multitasking

[Infonaut]

Is it impossible for Iraqis to do more than one thing at once?

I'm just guessing here, but I doubt that trying to bring Open Source tools into a developing technology infrastructure would sap the effort to create a stable government.

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[account_deleted]

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Chat with Iraq

[TheSync]

On Saturday, I had an Internet chat with Iraq, between a coffeehouse just outside of Washington, DC, and the Baghdad Internet Cafe.

One of their questions went like this:

baghdadic: LATEEF ASKS U HOW MUCH THE LATIST MODEL OF COMPUTER IN US ?
techartvideo: U can get good computer for 350 dollars, very good for 3000 dollars.
baghdadic: IT IS EXPENSIVE
techartvideo: How much for a computer in Baghdad?
baghdadic: 200 USD FOR P4 ( ASIAN ORIGIN ) TO 1300USD FOR LAP TOP

Which goes to show that the world is pretty much the same everywhere, especially for geeks!

Uh-oh, I think you're skipping a step or two

[iamdrscience]

It's supposed to go like this:

1. Get everybody food and water
2. Get everybody feeling reasonably secure in their safety.
3. Setup a stable, fair and working government.
4. Decide whether Iraqi cellphones will use GSM or CDMA
5. Decide which operating system to use.

I think we're stuck around #2 or #3, but these people are already jumping up to 5 (and other people to 4).

US needs to allow Munition like Linux to be export

[bstadil]

Believe it or not, but Linux can not Legally be exported from the US to Iraq.

Read the Letter Silicon Valley Linux USer Group put together to the DOD.

Unbelievable, but apparently true

Misleading...

[Tailhook]

It doesn't help your cause to attempt to mislead people. Your statement...

...excluding foreign nations...

...is a lie by omission. The US is excluding specific foreign nations for specific reasons, which is very different from your implication. Also, the exclusion applies to only part of the total available funds.

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[account_deleted]

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nice idea, bad timing

[martin-boundary]

This all sounds nice and all, but given that Halliburton is selling oil in Iraq for $1.59 per gallon, excluding extra company fees, when they could be doing it locally for about 15 cents per gallon, I somehow doubt that the Iraq is going to be rebuilt on open source. Microsoft's rock bottom software prices are way more capitalist friendly, if you know what I mean.

Huh?

[djupedal]

'Iraq is now a blank, unformatted hard disk and can be loaded with anything.'

Why bother? Nevada has the same attributes, and it's much closer to home.

Top ten things to load into a blank country:

• Nuclear waste
• Motorhomes
• Republicans
• Washed out female pop stars
• Congress
• The Patriot Act
• DRM
• AOL Cds
• Singing Billy Bass'es
• Free range turkeys

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[account_deleted]

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this argument misses one important point

[wrinkledshirt]

It's worth noting that many nations who opposed the war in Iraq did take up an increased responsibility in Afghanistan so that American troops could be rotated over to Iraq. They didn't participate directly in Iraq, but without their help sharing part of the burden in other parts of the war on terror, the United States would have had a harder going.

I won't go so far as to call you a jackass in retalliation, but I will say it's worth informing yourself more before resorting to insult.

An unformatted drive ?

[cinnamon colbert]

First of all, Iraq is, or at least was until years of US/UN sanctions crippled the economy, a fairly sophisticated country. I am sure there are many intellegint, well educated Iraqi geeks and computer scientists and power users who are quite capable of deciding for them selves what Iraq needs. Second, there is this HUGE gulf between what we think and what appears to be thought, based on news accounts, in the Arab world. The clearest example is the widespread anger at the fall of Hussein as a humiliation, a view that I would wager is alien to most americans. People in the Mideast are just as smart as we are, and they are fully entitled to their opinions; if we don't like them, acting like a big bully, and telling people to shutup and do as we think is not going to help. I think there is a tinge of this in the post, we know best and you (children) will do what we want (unspoken or else)...

It's the Philosophy that's Important

[femto]

There are plenty of comments along the lines "Iraq needs stability and government, not an operating system." True, but "Open Source" doesn't have to be just computer software.

Perhaps it is controversial, but I like to think of 'open source' in terms of a wider picture, as an aversion to secrecy. Not keeping computer source code is just one aspect of this wider 'open source'.

What could an 'open source' philosophy yield for Iraq? It could lead to transparency in government, reducing corruption and increasing stability. It could buy water and electricity, as shortcomings with utilities will not be hidden and the Iraqui people will demand that something be done about it. It could lead to greater trust in the government, eroding support for terrorism. Closer to the computer field, open source could provide grass roots communication for the country, allowing those without bias and vested interest (eg children) to communicate, cooperate, build understanding and reduce tribal tensions. This is what 'open source' could provide for Iraq.

A little help?

[violet16]

[bush@iraq /usr/local] rpm -ivh opensourcesoftware-0.1.i386.rpm
error: Failed dependencies:
personalcomputers.so.4.1.2 is needed by opensourcesoftware-0.1
electricity.so.0.9.6 is needed by opensourcesoftware-0.1
domesticlawandorder.so.1.0 is needed by opensourcesoftware-0.1
[bush@iraq /usr/local] rpm -ivh democracy-1.0.i386.rpm
Segmentation fault: population not formatted for democracy-1.0

Halliburton Linux 1.0

[trouser]

The reconstruction of Iraq has largely been contracted out to anybody who cared to bid as long as they were American and Halliburton. Where does open source anything fit into that picture?

Leave capitalism out of this!

[Cajun Hell]

Your post would make a lot more sense if you had left "capitalism" out of it, because capitalism is not the enemy nor does it conflict with Open Source or Free Software in any way.

The conflict is value (possibly implemented using open source) vs corruption (probably implemented by lock-in, a.k.a. The Microsoft Legacy).

THe only question is: who donated more money to the Bush campaign in 2000, and will likely donate more in 2004: Microsoft or their competitors? That's how you predict who will win.

Computers play integral role

[failedlogic]

Computers will be instrumental in the rebuilding of Iraq.

At *some* point the 'new' Iraqi governemnt will need to build infrastructure. On an immediate basis this would include electrical, water, and communications factilities. Most of these systems are in desparate need of repair and upgrades.

Whatever problems will happen with the government. there is no denying that such upgrades are needed. Computers are needed to run these systems (wheter Linux or Windows boxes run the actual systems is debatable) but employees will most likely need computers for day-to-day tasks. If they were to use say OpenOffice on the computers then as the gov't rebuilds it would make 'sense' to use the same software.

speaking of lies by omission...

[wrinkledshirt]

That use of "specific reasons" seems to suggest that there's a validity in the fact that countries were excluded for their anti-invasion stance.

It's worth noting that many nations who opposed the war in Iraq did take up an increased responsibility in Afghanistan so that American troops could be rotated over to Iraq. They didn't participate directly in Iraq, but without their help sharing part of the burden in other parts of the war on terror, the United States would have had a harder going.

Open Source?

[Anonymous Coward]

Bunch of stupid, slashdot, idiot children.

The Iraqi people are being slaughtered, have no food or electricity and you sorry ass hippies want to get them to use open source?

Stupid assholes.

Take a look here and see what is happening to them...

http://www.infowars.com/
http://www.information clearinghouse.info/

Stop getting your "news" from Dan Rather comander turd.

Pitiful idiots.

Just few points I think are worth mentioning

[nabil_IQ]

There are few points I felt I need to reply to. yesm right now we (Iraqis) have no sovern country, yes we don't have enough electrcity, yes drinking water is hardly good enough for drinking and yes Computer and IT is just about the last on our list of necessities for survival. BUT, as Iraqis, teh ppl. who actully built teh first civilization, and got that wiped out and rebuilt more time than I have time to count in here, and as Iraqis, who were the first to come up with writing, and the first to write a law to govern the aspects of everyday life some 10,000 years ago. I think we are capable of rebuilding, and placing our country back at the level it rightfully deserves. As some guys mentioned above, we may not have enough electrecity, nor a sovern government. but we sure do have brain power. And since I'm speaking to a techincal crowd here, I assume most of you are familiar with "Multi-tasking", while we have ppl. who are capable of rebuilding a government system, law institutes and have the help to rebuild power station and other facilities, we, the "geeks" can at least start to raise our voices in parallel. Raise awarness of what Linux is, and what FLOSS is and most importantly how to benefit from it. So the argument that Iraq needs other stuff that are more important is kinda void, everyone should and must do what he/she can in his or her own field, and our field is Linux/OS. Anotehr point, people ahead of me talked about "Linux is free, the US won't benifit from it!" well, last time I checked, which is not too long ago, RedHat was a US company and the charge money for their solutions, minus Fedora. IBM, HP, Dell and other manfacturers make the hardware that Linux runs on it and it does cost money. I see the benefits for those companies just as good as the benefit of Microsoft and their technologies to the US. So that's another point that's void. Regarding Arabization, the majority of Iraqis are able to communicate in English as teh Iraqi education system teachs teh English language manditory starting at grade 5. University studies, specially for Engineering and Science are at least 85% English language. here is a report on why we have chosen English language on our Linux group web portal it explains how Arabic langauge, even though it's spoken by the majority of Iraqis, is not really a blocking factor in the way of English only technologies (Given that at least we have a browser that renders Arabic fonts and probably few mail and IM clients that does so too). So language also is not a factor. All in all, Iraq right now is *IS* a brand new harddrive, we have the brian power to run anything on it, and that anything better be Linux :P anyhoo, I hope I made my points, comments are welcomed. Nabil. (http://www.iraqilinux.org) p.s.: I'm an Iraqi Living in canada right now, left Iraq some 3 years ago, and kept close contact with Iraq, so my information is up2date)

Watch out for Apple

[ville]

Watch out before Apple moves in undetected and it becomes iRaq.

// ville

Re:USA-bashers, please take note

[WildBeast]

You obviously never lived in a country who got occupied did you? Oh the ignorance. You think money is gonna take away the fact that they're occupied?

You should've seen those anti-occupation demonstrators getting shot at like dogs. You do watch the news don't you?

The Iraqi people themselves ARE telling us

[chrisbord]

There are many 'Blogs' by actual Iraqis. Check out this one by a particularly brilliant and inspiring Iraqi named Alaa: (in English)

http://messopotamian.blogspot.com/

Re:The Iraqi people themselves ARE telling us

[WildBeast]

Or you can check it this one, who actually represents what most of the Iraqis feel.

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

And this one by the first Iraqi blogger

http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/

Re:The Iraqi people themselves ARE telling us

[chrisbord]

Here is a list of the 'best' Iraqi blogs:

http://www.flyingchair.net/vote.php?categoryID=26

The article by the Iraq LUG

[amembleton]

This is the article they wrote and submitted to Linux Journal:

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6992

Iraq was not originally a desert.

[MsGeek]

Iraq was called the "Fertile Crescent" when it was a part of the Ottoman Empire, and Biblical legend had it that the Garden of Eden was at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The lush Hanging Gardens of Babylon was once one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Iraq has suffered mightily from ecological disaster during the regime of Saddam Hussein and in the wake of the Iran-Iraq War, Gulf War I, and Gulf War II. However, it was once the garden spot of the Middle East, and there is work already underway in restoring ecosystems in the Tigris/Euphrates River Basin.

Yes, there are a lot more pressing needs for the Iraqi people as a whole. But F/OSS is certainly better for them, as a developing nation, than bondage to Microsoft which is no doubt in Bill Gates' plans.

There's an old Union organizing song which has a line that says "we need bread and roses too." Iraq needs all the things people are saying they need in this thread. But they also need access to technology, both for practical and not-so-practical reasons. A developing nation needs bread, but that doesn't mean roses are out of the question until the bread situation is dealt with. We could do worse than to encourage F/OSS in Iraq. Certainly the Bush Administration, Halliburton and their buddies at Microsoft are hard at work encouraging other things to base Iraq's computer infrastructure on.

Re:Iraq was not originally a desert.

[geekoid]

Plus, It's not like all people have the skills to focus entirely on details of the government.
So people whose passion is government, can help with governmenr.
People whose passion is agriculture, and help with agriculture
and people whose passion is OS, can help get OS running.

Re:Iraq was not originally a desert.

[mpe]

Iraq was called the "Fertile Crescent" when it was a part of the Ottoman Empire, and Biblical legend had it that the Garden of Eden was at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

The people of Southern Iraq are sometimes known as "Marsh Arabs" Because of the flood plains of the rivers.
Iraq is similar to Egypt in that rivers have provided sufficent water in an arid part of the world for people to form urban populations since pre-history.

Re:Iraq was not originally a desert.

[Zymurgy]

I think you've got your dates a little off. Iraq was known as the Fertile Crescent more in the era of the Assyrian empire than the Ottoman one!

You're giving Mr. Hussein way too much credit here. He didn't turn Mesopotamia into a desert with 25 years of bad ecological policy; no, that took thousands of years of over-irrigation. Of course it's true that the Tigris-Euphrates valley was once quite green and lush and that it's the source of that old Semitic legend, the Garden of Eden. But this was thousands of years ago, not hundreds.

The deserification of Mesopotamia was the result of thousands of years of intensive agriculture. Artificial irrigation, when done for thousands of years, slowly but surely cakes the once-fertile soil with salt. Salinization of the soil is the primary reason the fertile crescent [very] gradually turned into a desert.

It took longer than 25 years since the installation of Saddam Hussein or the 85-odd years since the end of the Ottoman Empire. The culprit wasn't the B`ath (I don't know what the proper Romanized spelling of this political party is) party's bad agricultural policies, it was the "bad agricultural policies" of:

• Sumerians
• Babylonians
• Assyrians
• Chaldeans (or "New Babylonians")
• Achaemenid Persians
• Seleucid Greeks (Macedonians, really)
• Sassanid Persians
• Arabs
• Mongols
• Ottoman Turks
• Western Europeans
• and, last but not least, "Iraqis"

(Of course, there really is no such thing as an "Iraqi". There's Arab Sunnites, Arab Shi`a, and Kurds. Three different nations, not one. Iraqi nationalism and the Iraqi people are, in my opinion, the creation of the B`ath party, but I'm sure George Bush and Saddam Hussein would disagree.)

Re:Arabic support?

[chunkwhite86]

Israel just picked up linux for language support reasons... does Windows/Office support Arabic well? If not, I'm assuming Linux would, and therefore would have a leg to stand on at least.

I'm a native arabic speaker and avid Linux user. Linux's support for Arabic is dismal at best. Besides only a small amount of translations having been done, the Arabic character set is poorly supported (at least as of redhat 8).

The problem stems from the fact that Arabic, as a written language, is written in a flowing script - much like "cursive" english. Unlike cursive english however, there is no "plain text" counterpart in which the letters are seperated. Therein lies the problem. All the menus and documentation for Linux that I've seen in arabic is written such that each letter is seperate from the others, which is entirely unreadable.

c a n y o u r e a d t h i s s e n t e n c e m a y b e y o u c a n b u t i t i s v e r y d i f f i c u l t

This is the best comparison I can think of using english. As you can see, it is entirely unusable and would make for a very unpleasant computing experience.

If anyone has any insight on how to get decent Arabic support under Linux, please let me know!

As much as I hate Micro$oft

[nomad63]

....I hope that windows makes major inroads to the developing Iraq. If the country gets built upon O/S, there is no money to be made for the US. Whereas, micro$oft with their crappy OS will open a boatload of IT spending in Iraq as well as in any other country. Under the circumstances of IT job/spending shortage in the US, I would welcome any IT investment money flowing into the US, even though I would not touch a windows server with a 10 feet pole.

I know not all the people reading /. is from the US and they could not care any about what I say, but in the same train of thought I really could not care about others where highly skilled people are going unemployed in my immediate vicinity.

Am I selfish ? Heck yes ... if one says he/she is not selfish, is the biggest liar.

Check yourself.

[Chris Burke]

Hey, pal. We didn't send our soldiers off to get killed for cell phones and railways either.

Or at least we better fucking not have sent them over for cell phones and railways, or to pour money into Halliburton's coffers. But that's what I see them doing, and I'm more than a little bit pissed about it.

"A blank unformed hard disk"

[samantha]

You must be kidding. Iraq is the cradle of civilization. It has a long and rich history and many different and complex cultural/religious/ethnic/political strains going. It is not ripe for the uploading of whatever we might wish to see there. It is not ours to mold however we please. Most of all we should not assume that it is in large part pliable and able to be molded.

As much as I would like to see OS spread far and wide comments like the above are VERY presumptious and ugly American.

From the guy who wrote the article

[ajd]

I wrote the article in LinuxJournal on the Iraqi LUG. I thought I could clarify a few things.

First of all, of course Iraq needs a good and independent government, security, better water supply, a working economy, better healthcare, etc. And of course those have higher priority than software. But it also needs so many other things. I live in Iraq and have for most of the time since the war, I speak to Iraqis every day who are quite eloquent about their needs. One of the needs that many Iraqis have is to catch up on the decades of progress that has occurred in the rest of the world.

There are many, many Iraqis who are well-educated, ambitious, middle-class (by Iraqi standards), whose NUMBER ONE desire is to develop their education and understanding of the world's progress. They are outraged at the suggestion that nobody should help them until there is a free government, clean water, reliable power, etc. They want to catch up and quick.

Linux is just one of the things that these people are asking for. Electrical engineers want books and information about progress in their field. So do doctors, lawyers, scientists, etc. I'm working with a group of Iraqi artists (www.iraqartists.org) whose number one need right now is to know what has happened in the art world in the past few decades. I know of similar efforts among engineers, academics, physicians, attorneys, etc.

I don't know how I can, personally, bring Iraqis democracy, sanitation, power. But I do know that, without much effort, I can give them Linux distributions and a few bucks and a few books. I know that I can, personally, put them in touch with artists.

If you saw the look of unimaginable joy on the faces of the Linux geeks in Baghdad when I told them that I'd try to get some folks outside of Iraq to help them, I don't think you'd argue that we should put this project aside until every other problem is solved.

If you are in a position to transform Iraq into a democracy, or bring it power, or security, than by all means, do those things. But most of us can't do any of that. But we can send some URLs of useful information, or just an encouraging email, we can ship books and magazines about Linux, we can ship some CDs, and we can send them money. It will make life better for some Iraqis and has the potential of helping to ensure that Iraq's new government will be more open-source friendly. And, I believe strongly, open source knowledge and open source friendly laws will make Iraq a more successful country.

Also: to those who think every penny (dinar) spent in Iraq is controlled by the US and M$, you are mistaken. Of course, the US has very publicly shown that it intends most of the big contracts to go to US companies. But those are US construction companies, for the most part, who will build bridges, roads, schools, telecom centers, hospitals, etc. They are not software companies. Most of the actual work will be done by Iraqi subcontractors, who are free to use whatever OS they choose. Also, billions more will be spent by Iraqi government ministries who are not so directly controlled that they can't choose whatever OS they prefer.

And the Iraqi laws are being written by Americans AND Iraqis. The Americans writing them are career civil servants, many of whom are privately critical of Bush and are not beholden to M$ or any other proprietary solution.

There are certainly many profound problems with the way the US is running Iraq and I report on these all the time on Marketplace (www.marketplace.org), but it is not the complete and total corporatist sell-out that many imagine.

To sum up: if there are ways you can help Iraq that meet their most immediate needs, then do so. If you are someone who can offer Linux support--by offering yourself to be on-call for tech questions, suggesting useful URLs, sending books, CDs, and money, then that would be wonderful.

If you've already decided that the whole thing is a done deal and Bush and corporate America have complete c