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UN Supports OSS/Free Software In Developing World
headisdead writes "This BBC report has details of the IOSN's (International Open Source Network) role in yesterday's Software Freedom Day. As the article rightly points out, the economic potential of these new markets for large tech corporations like MS makes this a real battle in the making. Question is, can Free Software really stem the tide when other sustainal development projects are struggling so much?"
Here is their official website since the article
fails to mention it anywhere
fifteen jugglers, five believers
Some organisations are already using open source software in their work. Look at FAIR (http://www.fair.no/english/home.htm), a norwegain project that are bringing ICT-equipment to development countries. They are aming to use Skolelinux (http://www.skolelinux.org/) in their projects.
This story has just been getting way out of hand. The UN has alsmost nothing to do with this, appart from being a regular supporter of one of the over 60 teams world-wide.
To be fair, I guess I should also Slashdot the gallery of the Dutch team in Arnhem.
A lot of third world countries do not recognize copyright, so it wouldn't acutaly be pirated software there.
stuff
Last I checked IBM, SUN, Oracle, HP, etc were all US companies, so what exactly is your point here?
Argh. This is a dupe (though not Timothy's fault). The BBC picked up on and added to the original article by David Lugard, that Slashdot previously linked to here. The IOSN guys contacted them, requested a correction and in the process supplied BBC with additional information about what was done. However, the article, like all those based on the original IDG/Infoworld article, is misleading. The IOSN was merely publicizing the event and if you clicked through the link, you would see that. (Assuming it's not /.'ed. It was down the whole of last week due to two consecutive postings onto Slashdot.)
Software Freedom Day's true website is at www.softwarefreedomday.org and credit should go to the great guys there who did so much to organize and publicize it, including the OpenCD people (Henrik) and others.
Of course, signing a convention and actually complying it are two different things...
Please alter my pants as fashion dictates.
Open Letter to Hobbyists
Top line: "Who can afford to do professional work for nothing?" Boy, has that one been thoroughly answered! (-:
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
c|net interview 2 jul 1998
Key phrase: "As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Jan 2000 transcript of 1980 interview
"If something's expensive to develop, and somebody's not going to get paid, it won't get developed. So you decide: Do you want software to be written, or not?"
We've decided, Bill, now stop hogging The Road Ahead, OK? (-:
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Of course, the WTO changes all that; now the graph is more or less a straight line. That is to say, that Windows XP SP2 CD you bought off Kuala Lumpur's streets for 8 ringgits is still illegal, even if it's affordable.
More than mere navel gazing.
Excuse Me! Who's licencsing software in the third world! We get Windows a lot cheaper than redhat. Here in Pakistan Windows costs 30 Rupees (.5 US dollars) where as Mandrake costs 90 Rupees (1.5 US Dollars) WHy? Because windows comes in a single CD and Mandrake comes with 3 CDs thats why the additional cost
And I can confirm this first hand, having spent 10 years in Singapore from 1988 'till 1998. An entire modern shopping center used to be the center of piracy in Singapore (Sim Lim square). Ath first (from 1988-1990?) you would go to any shop and choose games/software in a catalog. The guy would make copies for you on the spot.
A few years later you could buy ziplock bags sitting on shelves with disks + manual for a few dollars. All in open view. From maybe 1994 onwards those disks became CDs. There were maybe 20-30 shops in the commercial center, none of them hiding. You would go buy your software like you would your groceries. I remember friend buying over 150 CDs (Windows, Office, games, 3D studio) at a time.
Around 1998, it was widely consider that Singapore was not 3rd world anymore. People actually had the money to buy original software. Microsoft which had always turned a blind eye, started requesting that the government raid the shops. In 1999, all the shops selling pirated software suddenly closed. An over 10 year old activity was shut down in the blink of an eye.
I am convinced that it was in MS's best interest to allow the rampant piracy until they had a strong foothold in the market. It made business sense anyway, at a time where no singaporean would spend the cash for an original version of Office.
The quickest way to become an atheist is to study the Bible thoroughly.
Frankly, from my experience writing and supporting software run in a manufacturing setting, users usually fall into two categories:
1. oblivious to everything computer and frustrated by the whole mouse thing, not mention the crazy cutoff text and boxes and shadows and oh my eyes hurt!
2. knows enough to be dangerous, likes to poke around, has a pc at home and downloads mp3s, chats on IM, plays games, and really, really wants to be able to do that while at work (and thus is always screwing around with system settings).
The latter of which is perfectly capable of learning the Linux env, or mastering Windows intuitively. And the former is guaranteed to be confused by a microwave without a timer dial.
there is absoluely no problem running linux on that spec, the real "problem" is windowmanagers like kde and gnome
you can easily work with windowmaker, icewm, or whatever "small" wm is around but kde is imho VERY much like xp:
has almost everything onboard
needs huge amounts of processing power/ram
is (what many say) "userfriendly"
while i do use kde on my workstation (which is advanced enough to run it without slowdown) i would never use it on an old computer like a PII with 64MB. i guess (almost) no one would whine if his 20 year old golf cant carry a 10 ton trailer.
so use the right tool for the job, its your choice (yea we all know thats what linux is all about)
-- Karma: beyond good and evil - mostly affected by posting political
BBC seem to think 'free' means 'worse than cheap'. Not so; there is nothing inferior about Free Software. I think they know really, though; look at their proposed Free video codec