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Software Livre, Anyone?
tbray writes "They just had this
huge OSS conference in Brazil. One good write-up by Simon Phipps is here. And hey, down there, OSS and Java play nice together."
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Here's a quick babelfish translation.
As much as Phipps says that Brazil "get's it", with their theme of 'software livre' they have missed the greatest benefit of Free software. That would be the free-as-in-beer aspect of FS.
While it is all well and good that the freedoms defined in the GPL exist and allow users the ability to modify and augment systems, those rights can be BOUGHT for a price from any software house. What can't be bought is the software at a cost of zero dollars.
So let's celebrate gratis software, because it is what will allow us to take business away from proprietary companies.
Finally, 3rd world countries are getting it!
Free / Open Source software is the way to go.
You can't make your country a developed one by importing overrated and overprized propietary technology.
By the way, the brazilian goverment is also doing a good job negotiating FTAA (ALCA), not like most other countries in Latin America, which are desesperatly yielding to "free trade" agreements with the US, which only benefit big bussines and make more restrictive IP regulation, like the DMCA, software patents and extensive pharma patents for their countries.
Brazil, isn't that where hot snow falls up?
An interesting tidbit of this article is that they "wants to annually recycle 240 a thousand computers" anually for public telecenters, libraries, and schools. Couldn't tell if they plan to put Open Source OSes onto these computers, but I would assume so. This is a lot better than wasting valuable hardware. Not to mention most schools can function fine with slower processors as opposed to 3Ghz ones, which are substantially more expensive.
"Book" in French. The term "Software Livre" might confuse some of those who speak French.
No data, no cry
No, they just had this huge free software conference in Brazil. Even robotic translation software gets this right. Lots of people around the world understand free software as being distinct from "open source software" (OSS). Not everyone is so eager to back a movement which caters to the percieved needs of businesses.
Digital Citizen
> Microsoft's representative Emilio Umeoka [criticised] the President of Brazil for promoting free software: "I don't know if this is the best way to attract investment into the country. I know this is not the best way to create a base of development from which to export because there's no revenue from something free."
Apparently, the business plan that Microsoft is encouraging Brazil to follow is:
1) Send money to Microsoft.
2) ???
3) Profit!!!
From the article:
... he was included with those recognised as leaders of the open source community ... and has been championing the use of the Java platform for open source projects.
Bruno Souza
IIRC, RMS wrote a piece encouraging developers to not use Java, because Sun still wants to keep people under their thumb. That position is now kinda mitigated by GCJ but I still agree with RMS's position... To be truly free [speech] software, your language cannot be under a corporate thumb like that.
I have never seen a Java advocate counted among the champions of free software and this is a very encouraging step.
One of many? How many times have we seen this on slashdot:
Sun is opening Java!
Wait, not yet
No, for real this itme, Sun is opening Java
Well, "real soon now"
etc.
bash: rtfm: command not found
terms confuse YOU
I agree with the points you are making, but I don't think it is proper to use the term "3rd world countries".
Third world countries? Are those countries with corrupt elections, corrupt judges, and corrupt government leadership?
Is a third world country one of those that is always making war on its neighbors? (The U.S. government has bombed 24 countries since the Second World War. The last Brazilian aggression outside the country was in 1822, I'm told.)
When you say "third world country" you give an impression that the U.S. is superior in every way. That impression is false. In general, Brazilians are much happier than Americans. People in the U.S. use more legal drugs than those of any nation that has ever existed. The U.S. is the most obese country in the history of the world; eating when not hungry is an index of unhappiness.
A higher percentage of U.S. citizens go to prison or jail than any country in the entire history of the world. For example,
President George W. Bush DUI, 1st record of arrest
President George W. Bush DUI, 2nd record of arrest
Vice-President Dick Cheney DUI, record of 1st arrest
Vice-President Dick Cheney DUI, record of 2nd arrest
I don't understand why the open source community is so anti-Java. Now after reading that sentence don't think I'm leading into a rant against that anti-Java mentality. Instead, I'm pleading ignorance here -- I just want someone to enlighten me :)
:)
Even though the Java API & implementation are controlled by Sun, why should that discourage OSS developers from writing software in it? If you can still release your source code freely while the Java VM remains free for download, what's the harm?
Case in point, Azureus is a great BitTorrent client/server written in Java, and released under the GPL. As its source code is made freely available, it receives the same feedback as other GPL'd programs receive developed for an open source language.
And just recently, I've found Java useful for controlling my Lego Mindstorms robots (see Lejos) to making my own peer-to-peer program (working on it in my spare time... coming soon, hopefully). I'll be releasing all the source code for these projects online, under the GPL -- isn't that what really matters?
Again, I'm just ignorant. Please enlighten me!
- sm
Livre is French for "book" ... libre is French for "free (as in freedom)" ...
...
Is this title correct? It doesn't sound like its about "book software"
I dont know what any of your post had to do with the grandparent.. seems that you just wanted to troll and perhaps whore for karma by linking to a lot of irrelevent and offtopic sites.
Not to mention that most of you facts are way distorted anyway.
"So what are we, chopped livre?!"
-- thinkyhead software and media
Modérez-moi cet idiot vers le bas. Non seulement son poste est un appât à flammes, mais il est redondant en plus!
My post is directly relevant because it affects the entire way you understand the Slashdot article. Is the U.S. a superior nation, and Brazil is catching up? Or could the way things are done in Brazil teach us something, as the parent to my original post said?
You say the facts are distorted? Who should we believe, an AC or the authors of the 25 books linked in my post, that ALL say the U.S. government is corrupt? Are you saying that Bush and Cheney didn't go to jail for DUI? Are you saying Noel Bush was not actually arrested, even though USA Today printed an arrest photo? Are you saying there is no obesity problem in the United States?
Brazil is probably the moste remarkable countries I have encountered during all my travels.
Apart from the many obvious attractions this country has to offer (the Amazon ecosystem, the unbelievable food, the friendliness of its citizens, the great beaches etc.), Brazil is on its way to become the most modern state in South America and setting the pace for the development of the continent in many respects.
The current government seems to have realized that sovereignity and independence are the two most important goals that cannot be achieved by relying on foreign companies in many areas of everyday life. Software is only one part of it, food, beverages, automobiles, clothing, oil and gas are others and Brazil is on its way to create and maintain economic independence in all these areas.
One of the most overlooked facts of the entire matter is the rather weak currency, which makes one copy of Windows XP extremely expensive. Just to give you an idea about the costs of life in Brazil: A dinner for four persons in a 5-Star restaurant in downtown Rio (www.porcao.com.br) with the most amazing variety and quality of food, incredibly attentive waiters, a posh setting and numerous drinks cost me about 90$. Having wined and dined people in similiar surroundings in New York and Chicago, the bill in these places ran well over 300 USD.
Even at reduced prices, Microsoft products are way too expensive for the regular Joe and a government operating on a tight budget. Economically it doesn't make any sense at all to transfer license fees to the USA, when comparable software can be had for free and can be supported from with the country's own resources.
Another question. If I have Win2K on one HDD and intend to install Linux on another HDD, and if I write LILO to the
At least it seems the plan:y pe=topN ews&storyID=5340922
:-)
:-)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?t
And if Lula, the President of Brazil, is reelected for more 4 years, you can expect some serious open source trend in Brazil!
Perhaps it will be the biggest country so far to really support open source. And Brazil was a pioneer on the adoption of Electronic Vote Machines, so you can realize that my country is kind of irresponsible in its attitudes!
Be afraid Microsoft! Be very afraid!
I know this post will be modded offtopic, but i don't care:
The last Brazilian aggression outside the country was in 1822, I'm told.
Actually, Brazil (plus Argentina and Uruguay) fought against Paraguay in a war that started in 1864 and ended in 1870.
After that, Brazilian troops fought bravely against the Axis (and their allies) in World War II - in Italian territory and alongside U.S. troops, to be more precise.
Fixed link:
http://tinyurl.com/2srd5
Thanks. I knew a little about that war, but didn't remember it involved Brazil. I found it on Google: Brazil occupied Paraguay until 1878.
Aside from sending troops to fight in the Second World War, has there been any other Brazilian aggression outside the country since then?
(I'm certainly not worried about moderation, either. Sometimes topics come up, and need to be discussed. I think I made a good point, saying that Brazil is superior in some ways, but I want to get my facts straight.)
Unfortunately, Lula government is fucked up in the head. In some aspects they are great (fighting poverty, fighting hunger, promoting OSS, aiming for economic independence, etc). But they have a nasty flaw, their stupid tax policy.
Since their government started all they did in this are is to increase the already ridiculously high taxes on companies (even small ones), they are trying to force everybody that works as a company to work as hired help (thus dramatically increasing taxation), they are trying to tax the INPS thing on the raw income of the companies instead of the payroll... yuck.
It is unfortunate that they, after all the years of experience are still rabid anti-enterprise and anti-rich sindicalist motherfuckers. They are doing NOTHING to address the country's biggest problem which is, surprinsingly, the government itself, full of currupt fucks and money deviation. Instead, all they do is to try to get more money to the govt, which will probably end in some politician's pockets.
And it is amazing that they never learned that in this country, more taxes just means more tax-evasion (which is utterly absurd already). Tax reasonably and go after tax-evaders, and the income will syrocket without the need to destroy the economy like they currently do. I'm seriously thinking of moving outta here because I'm so pissed about this tax thing, which sucks, because this country is beautiful.
cheers.
``If a program can't rewrite its own code, what good is it?'' - Mel
> IRC, RMS wrote a piece encouraging developers to not use Java,...
I don't believe that.
If RMS wanted developers to stay away from Java, then why did RMS and the FSF create the GCJ Java compiler?
Do you have a link? Maybe RMS said something different, for example, maybe he was encouraging people to use an Open Source JVM instead of Sun's JVM.
There is no reason for people to avoid the Java _language_, any more than there is a reason for people to avoid C++. But you might want to avoid certain proprietary _implementations_ of those languages, such as, for example, Sun's JVM, or Microsoft's Visual C++.
> because Sun still wants to keep people under their thumb.
Bullsh**! Sun can't control what people do with Java. There is too much competition in the Java market for Sun to control it.
Sun licensed the Java spec to be open. Anyone can use it, and anyone can create their own Java Virtual Machine. There are no royalties to pay, and no contracts to sign.
You can even change or extend the Java spec if you want, though you can't use the word "Java" to describe the result. For example, HP created a modified-spec embedded JVM, and called it Chai. And Transvirtual added the Microsoft J++ extensions to their Open Source Kaffe JVM.
Only the _word_ "Java" is controlled by Sun. You can't use that word for your product unless you prove your product is compatible with the official Java spec. Sun reserves the word "Java" as a guarantee of compatibility.
But if you don't use the word "Java" -- if you call your product Chai, or Kaffe, for example -- then you can do whatever you want.
Of course, I'm not recommending for people to create incompatible versions of Java, because the whole purpose of Java is to provide cross-platform compatibility.
> That position is now kinda mitigated by GCJ but I still agree with RMS's position...
_Kinda_ mitigated? Only now? What nonsense!
There are dozens of Java virtual machines and compilers.
They come from many different companies.
Some of them are Open Source.
They're not controlled by Sun.
And you can switch between them.
Unlike Windows, there is competition in the Java market. As a result, no one is under Sun's thumb because they use Java.
In fact, Sun isn't even the biggest supplier of Java in the market. That would be IBM.
And Sun can no longer control the direction of Java. For example, the companies that make up the Eclipse group recently decided to continue with their own Java graphics library, instead of Sun's Swing.
> To be truly free [speech] software, your language cannot be under a corporate thumb like that.
That statement repeats your original error.
The Java _language_ is not under Sun's thumb.
Sun controls the Java _name_ (like Linus controls the Linux name), and Sun controls the source code for their own Java _implementation_ (i.e. Sun's JVM). That's it.
There is nothing stopping us from taking the Java _language_ in any direction we want, as long as we call it something different. For example, we could call it by the name of one of the Open Source Java implementations, such as JBoss.
In other words, we could fork Java.
But why would we want to?
People aren't forced to follow Sun's published spec for Java. But we do anyway, for the same reason that we continue to follow Linus for the Linux kernel -- because we want a single standard, and Sun is doing a reasonably good job as its custodian.
> Sun is opening Java! Wait, not yet...
Ah, I see you have fallen for Microsoft's recent FUD campaig
It isn't news raising taxes on Brazil. Fernando Henrique created the "CPMF" which was supposed to be temporary, and after 10 years it has become permanent already.
Umm, wouldn't that be Software Libre?
Livre is French for book, that confused me a bit...
And hey, down there, OSS and Java play nice together
The problem with Java and OSS is that even the specifications for the Java environment are proprietary, that Sun does not permit independent reimplementations without their express approval (in the name of "compatibility"), and that once you look at Sun's source code, you are forever barred from participating in open source implementations (because Sun could claim them as derivative works).
See, the problem with OSS and Java is not the OSS side--OSS developers have gone out of their way to accomodate Sun around the world. Maybe Brasilian developers are more gullible and less critical than elsewhere, but the party who isn't playing nice is Sun. And, unless Sun has changed their licenses for Brasil (which I doubt), OSS and Java have the same problems in Brasil as everywhere else.
the people are open-minded, reasonable and friendly and recognise the value of platform independence as a vehicle of freedom.
So, why, then, do they commit to using a proprietary platform owned and controled by a single company, Sun?
I think a more realistic assessment is that the people of Brasil haven't been through quite the same intellectual property headaches that the people of the US have been, so they are perhaps not quite as sensistive to the problems that Sun ownership of Java can potentially cause.
I must object. Brasil is home to many beautiful and clean women. I can tell you from personal experience that it is quite possible to have intimate relations with a lady from Brasil without acquiring any sort of disease or ailment(other than depression when you have to fly home).
Brasil may have a lamtentable HIV problem, granted, but it certainly isn't in the same risk category as some Asian or African countries.
That being said, I severely doubt that many slashdotters will have much to fear from HIV infection rates in Brasil or in any other nation. There are exceptions, I suppose . . .
Brazil is walking the correct path to be the most advanced free-source country in the whole world, and yes, that includes the US. Why?
Government backing is one factor. We have our own version of GPL (which is partially incompatible with our legal system, but not void), the LPG (rtf file, Portuguese). It was made/rewritten from the GPL by the Brazilian Advocate Union. Yes, it's the single one that every lawyer must abide to and respect. The Creative Commons license is in the process of being translated and becoming an official licensing term, as in government-backed and even encouraged.
Yes, there are projects to yeld tax cuts to people and companies that use/distribute/publish free software.
DMCA is null and void here. Yes, we have to follow international copyright laws but you won't be fined if you hack your cable box or DVD player to learn a bit. Piracy? I can tell, it's pretty much the same as everywhere, with the exception of audio CDs that is rampant around the country. So BMG wants to try out a new content protection scam^H^H^H^Hscheme, well baby it won't work. You have a moral choice, to buy a crippled, legal CD for R$30 (around US$10) or the full monty, "generic" version for R$5 (US$1.70). And don't forget we earn A LOT less than our yankee friends. Allow me to say, I am a doctor and I make less than 1000 US monthly.
Speaking of generic, that's one law that was pretty much shoved down US companies and they hated us for that. But Time magazine once praised Brazilian health treatment to AIDS, citing it as an example to Third World Country. What happens is, any medicine patented prior to 1992 lost the patent. Other pharmaceutical companies are allowed to fabricate and distribute them. This was "bad" for them but the final blow comes next: if there is a strong public health interest, the government may cancel any other medical patent.
Think AIDS.
Yes, AIDS treatment is free around here. Government-backed laboratories reverse-engineer and produce zidovudine, lamivudine, 3TC, protease inhibitors and whatnot. They are given (as in gratis) to registered AIDS patients.
You may say it's a harsh thing to do and laboratories want/need to make a profit, well, they do. But when public health is significantly more important than personal gain the table will turn. You know what? The laboratories whined at first, but now they kinda agree with that. They lost their rings to keep their fingers, as an adage says.
In music/entertainment, I can say for sure that many of the most prominent musicians like Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso are strong backers of the "music wants to be free" mindset.
Hey, don't take my word on that. Lawrence Lessig, Creative Commons director, recently told the press that Brazil is becoming the world's epicenter of Free/OSS dicussion.
Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all
Here goes a non-fish translation of the leads only. It's Sunday morning and I'too lazy to do the rest.
FISL: 35 coutries represented and all Brazilian states represented in the Forum.
Software Livre [FISL]), that ended today, June 5th, in Porto Alegre, had 4,854 attendants from 35 countries, comparing to the 20 countries of last year. All 27 Brazilian states were represented, as were 380 municipalities in the country. Of the total number of attendants, 1,014 people were representing firms or public instituions, a record number according to the event's organization.
5th FISL: Gilberto Gil (Culture Minister) preaches "land reform" in the field of cultural propriety.
Free culture was the prevalent idea in the launching of the Creative Commons project in Brazil, with the presence of the Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil [1] in a debate int the PUC-RS Event Hall, in Porto Alegre. The encounter, in the end of the friday the 4th's afternoon, was one of the most attended of the Forum.
5th FISL: Lecturers criticize press coverage about Free Software
In the conference "Free Software in the Press", that took place in the last day of the 5th FISL, the debaters reached the conclusion that there are many flaws in the spreading of the theme by the comunication media.
The coordinator of special projects of the e-government of the Municipality of Sao Paulo, Joao Cassino, said that the coverage about Free Software in the press has a lot to do with journalism ethics. "It's very easy to distort technical themes, but we cannot deny journalism is a politics weapon," he said.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
Wow. A guy that follows the porn industry news. You must be really cool.
"They understand the real issue - it's about sovereignty. They no longer want to funnel Brazil's wealth abroad when they have a growing and excellent software community of their own. They want local people to provide service and write software for the government and industry. They want local skills to enrich the F/OSS world and build exportable skills. They have a vision for how to both enrich the culture and skills of their country while creating a power-house for the export of services in the future. They get it. Emilio Umeoka doesn't."
- What i think the "real" issue is that the gov. does not want to pay for their software. It is a way to cut costs. Good for the gov. but what do the programmers REALLY get out of it?!? Donations, Ad revenue from the site?!? Crock of sheeeeeet
Why i use free open source software? It is free and i don't have to pay for it... and when i do i laugh. look it is free i didn't have to pay ha ha ha ha ha ha.. suckers.... That is what i think of open source... i guess i am not helping in the GLORY of free software. It all depends on who is pushing for free software. If i had to pay for software hell yea i would push to have other people write it for free and give me the source that is a no brainer.. who really does not get that? the programmers ha ha ha.. Let the programmer choose to be open source not the customers or industry.. that is just fucked up.
It needed sayin'.
I'm a blue collar worker so I am always amazed at the idea that somehow cheaper/freer/more useful tools are somehow bad for the economy. Man, cheap/free/better is GREAT to increase productivity. Like today, I have to go work on a medium sized diesel mower (kubota f2000 to be exact) that has some busted hydraulics. I have to stop my real productivity (mowing in this case),experience unexpected "downtime", the stuff that makes me my real coin, rummage through my tools, hope I have enough of everything I need to get to the busted part, then hope I can fix it without purchasing an entire new part. If there was a way I could replicate what I needed, make a copy, and if I knew I could just go get all the tools I needed for cheap/free, MAN 0 MAN would that be nice. I know I might have to pay a fee for a part, but if it's too much, and they want to charge me for the knowlege of how to deal with that part, and insist I can only use their brand tools to work on it, etc, it starts to slide into the sucky range. There needs a common sense balance here.
Charging through the nose for tools, I mean, say if I had to subscribe to tools, and had to constantly keep paying for tools that never improved much, and kept breaking, etc, would really suck. The REAL productivity would never get much better, I'd be stuck in tool/parts cost expense hell, productivty would keep dropping, not improving, and everyone starts to suffer.. Whenever the cost/price of tools and parts drops, and when the aggregation of the tools and parts (in this case a functioning tractor) increase, I am more productive, make more loot. Less downtime, less hassle, less headaches etc. I'm not out to make the tool companies rich,they can make a few clamss off me but not so much that it makes my job impossible. They have to stay real and keep their tools and parts good enough and cheap enough and functional enough for me to keep going in my real job. There's a symbiosis here that benfits all, but it would never happen if the tools and parts cost more than what the job makes. If it gets to the point that the aggregate is just not worth it, then that's that, it no longer is profitable for ANYONE concerned in the whole deal.
My point is, tools and parts are for the REAL WORK, they, in and of themselves, are NOT the entire real work. That's the major difference in see in the softwarez and IT world between closed/expensive/propietary and cheap(er)/free(er)/ and more open.
My best guess is, for example, the way-just a randomness here, say redhat- is approaching this situation fits closer to a profitable/workable arrangement for all concerned, shifting to non tangible products and tools. It's not perfect, not yet, but getting better and evolving to a happier medium that benefits all concerned. The over all societal benefit in having closer to free/cheap tools and parts, and tools and parts that people are free to modify for a particular purpose (say I need a wrench to fit into a tight spot, I can bend it in a vise to make it fit, no license or permission required, and I can share the design with others and still not suffer), then this is a good thing.
And I HAVE done this in meat space. There's an industry specific tool that's used all over that I designed and had built the first examples of.(It is not relevant the exact tool for this discussion) previous there were a lot of home made widgets that functioned similarily, but I made a professional one that was useful and durable enough that several companies are now producing and making them. I initially made a few bucks on it,and that was it, I recovered my costs basically and still own several of the first run, and have used them in *real* work, which was the original idea. I benefited initially from just borrowing a home made cob job example of the tool, then greatly improving on itwith my meagre 'developer" skills. But the design, etc, I just threw out to the world, no patents, copyrights, nuthin, just dumped it, free, because I understand having better tools is a good idea for the people who use to
Reports says the Government is spending less than half of the budget dedicated to the poverty fighting.
The Lulas government is corrupt.
I think that countries should be rated by the number of parties, not the number of dollars. In that case, Brazil wins.
According to the CIA World Factbook (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos /br.html), HIV prevalence rate in US is 0.7%, basically the same as in US (0.6%). Brazil has not a "lamentable HIV problem".
GNU Classpath
GCJ/GIJ
Kaffe VM
Jikes Java compiler
SableVM
Java-GTK
Documents about how to compile and use QTJava and KDEJava
What else do we need? How does all this not play well with Free software? We've got the tools, why not use them?
HIV Problem? We have MANY problems - like unemployment rates at 20% and such - but HIV is not one of them. In fact, we have one of the most successfull HIV Prevention campaigns in the world.
Not only did I read about this story on fark (several times, with followups and extra details), it was in the NY Times as well. The reason the poster isn't "really cool" isn't because he knows about the recent HIV scare, but because he's insinuating that all Brazilian women are equivalent to porn stars.
Even if you never look at porn, if you care about free speech you should care about this story, b/c Ashcroft is itching for an excuse to ban pornography, and I wouldn't put it past him to cite "public health concerns" as a reason to do so. Or at least to heavily regulate the industry (which the gov't has no business doing).
Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a soportar Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a espabilar
a lot of people have this wrong idea about brazil they think we are all like Rio de Janeiro (the city), or that we all live in the Amazon Forest, but that is just plain wrong. Most of us don't live like Disney's Zé Carioca (or whatever the name he has in US) or among indians in the amazon basin.
if you look at the states of São Paulo (SP), Paraná (PR), Santa Catarina (SC) and Rio Grande do Sul (RS)(where the SL meeting took place), you will find people that live ~almost~ like in US or in Europe.
in RS you will meet the 'gauchos', a proud people, who resemble the argentinian Gaucho (cartoonized by Disney's Panchito), and in both RS and SC you will find cities that were founded and mantain the good old traditions of Germany, Italy, Poland and Açores (the islands in the atlantic, owned by Portugal)
so, calling this people 3rd Country is like calling them primitives, not well technology developed, even though we are as well developed as most of US great cities, or more develeoped than some European Countries.
we might have something to learn here and there, but at some stuffs, you (US citizens) are the one who could learn something
"life is a joke, and someone is laughing at me"
(BTW, there are several other versions of the top languages on the linked site, but NONE of them show native French speakers outnumbering Portuguese speakers, so :p The asterisks indicate there are more than a single version of the language included, since Chinese "dialects," for example, are mutually incomprehensible and ought to be considered separate languages, IMHO.)
Back on topic--Lula is doing a great job, even if some of his leftist buddies feel a bit betrayed (re. GMO soybeans, for example) and the official embrace of open software is really going to help people. There are internet cafes running Linux, so those without computers still have opportunities to learn. In the US, many people are willing to pay extra money for software to save themselves some labor. In Brazil, labor is the cheapest resource there is, so people are more willing to take the time to learn how to use Linux rather than pay a Microsoft fee. Eventually Linux will be as easy to use as Windows, but I don't know how good that is. The farther you are abstracted from what the computer's doing, the less you understand what's going on under the hood. How much you want to bet that Brazilians learning Linux hands-on are going to be way more likely to know how to troubleshoot a malfunctioning internet connection than someone who only knows XP.
Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a soportar Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a espabilar
When I ran Windows, I put off upgrading as long as possible, because the new features never made my life easier. They were always eye candy like the anti-functional Windows XP Explorer, with the useless panel on the left side that just takes up space. Or if I want to find files, I have to go into Preference and verify that I want to both SEE hidden files and also want my searches to SEARCH those hidden/system files. Don't get me started about viruses/security. If Windows were open source, they'd never see a dime of my money because they don't innovate. There are good reasons people are dedicated to Windows' destruction.
Note that I could be running OpenDarwin on my laptop, or Yellow Dog Linux, or Gentoo, if I were really opposed to the proprietary nature of my OS. However, I feel the productivity I get from using OS X justifies its cost. I'm not running a server, or I wouldn't think of using a proprietary OS. If there were a completely open and free OS that worked as well for me on the desktop, I'd gladly use it.
As long as people actually run applications on their operating systems, there will be a place for proprietary software. I can't see someone writing an open version of Logic ProTools, complete with banks of sound samples and other content that would be a real pain-in-the-ass the generate yourself. But please, separate the OS from the apps, because they are fundamentally different. Microsoft abuses its position as the OS vendor to release crap like DRMed Windows Media Player, and because they keep their source locked up tight (with the exception of a leaked CD here and there), there's no way to uninstall it. If Apple did that kind of crap (registration codes, phoning home before letting me install) I'd seriously consider reformatting and installing Yellow Dog. I believe a more open OS is actually better for application developers than a closed source one. There shouldn't be such a thing as "secret APIs" like in Windows.
Open everything up, and may the best coders win! Software for profit may not disappear, but the crappiest software will.
Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a soportar Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a espabilar
From 1864-1870, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay fought a war against Paraguay. 90% of Paraguayan men were killed. I'm honestly surprised they held up for six whole years.
I'm not sure what defines a third-world country. I heard Ireland was considered third-world until very recently. Second world (almost never heard the term used) I think refers to to countries that were part of the Soviet bloc.
Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a soportar Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a espabilar
And hey, down there, OSS and Java play nice together.
:).
Here Java and Linux are almost synonyms. It's sad that the Linux community don't really *get it* when it comes to Java.
But that's expected. Vision and innovation are not one of the OSS characteristics.
The curious part is that those who complain about Java license "issues", are not Java developers at all! And sometimes not even developers they are.
I haven't met so far one single Java developer that ever wanted to GPL it.
BTW, I heard a story about Italian being Brazilians language, hahahahahahaha. Some people missed some geography classes
Actually, more than 200 million ppl speak portuguese, if you count Portugal and several others African portuguese colonized countries.
Portuguese, aside with Spanish, French and German are one of the most beautiful languages, in my opinion. To hear and speak.
There're absolutely no HIV problems over here. And every people has the president it deserves, *cough*Bush*cough*...
The statistics seem outdated. There are over 170M people in Brasil alone. Add Portugal, and we should have far more than 170M. Of course, other language stats may be outdated too.
Where is that guy who'd die defending what I had to say when I need him?
Sorry, Hagnat. I mean FESTAS, not PARTIDOS. Party as in having fun, not political party.
The number of parties, festas, is an index of happiness of the people. If we use that index, Brazil is at the top, and I don't know who is in second place.
If you lived in the U.S., you would soon become VERY tired of easy women.
Do not dare to turn this into pro-Lula propaganda. The fact is that any govenrment with some brains would encourage an open-source trend, nor only Lula. Im a brazilian and I know for sure how inept Lula is and the really stupid things that he is doing, altough I must admit that he is not so bas as I was expecting. But a terrible president anyway.
"Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds !"
Já vi tudo, esse otario deve ser filiado ao PT e achar tudo uma maravilha. Cadê o FOME ZERO? Cadê o VALDOMIRO? Cadê o MINIMO DE 100 DOLARES? Só retórica falida. Agora volte para seu poster do Guevara e tente trabalhar um pouco para variar.
É mesmo. O governo do Lula é uma merda. Se eu fosse você, iria para outro país mais evoluído, como os EUA. HUahua.
All governments make mistakes. I haven't voted for Lula yet, but that doesn't mean that I can't see some highlights in his administration. His government isn't as terrible as it could have been. If they want to save some bucks on software to spend on social priorities, so be it.
Hmm, I had seen different data . . . but it may have been old.
If that is the case, then all the better for Brasil.
As an addendum, it appears that my perception of the HIV situation in Brasil was colored mostly by the situation developing in Rio Grande do Sul. Nationally, their infection rates are below 1%.