Followup on MS and Brazil in NY Times
putko was one of dozens to submit a story running on the NY Times about Open Source and Brazil. The choice quote is
"We're not going to spend taxpayers' money on a program so that Microsoft can further consolidate its monopoly..."
8=====D
even more choice quotes from article:
"The drive to bridge the digital divide has drawn widespread praise throughout the technology industry. But the preference for open-source software has been controversial, with critics inside and outside the government saying Mr. da Silva's administration is letting leftist ideology trump the laws of supply and demand.
"The government shouldn't be the one who decides what hardware and software will go into these computers," said Júlio Semeghini, a member of Congress from the opposition Social Democratic Party. "That's undemocratic."
The open-source route, however, has support beyond the da Silva administration. Walter Bender, the executive director of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose opinion was solicited by the Brazilian government, replied in a recent letter that "high-quality free software" has proved more effective in stimulating computer use among the poor than scaled-down versions of proprietary software.
Though he said he did not oppose giving consumers a choice, he concluded that "free software provides a basis for more widespread access, more powerful uses and a much stronger platform for long-term growth and development."
Whatever the government decides, most industry analysts agree that the program will probably help combat software piracy, which is widespread in Brazil.
And by wooing new consumers, "even if the program doesn't reach its goals, it's going to end up stimulating the computer and software markets," said Jorge Sukarie, president of the Brazilian Association of Software Companies. "It's not perfect, but it's certainly better than nothing."" --
it's also better (in the opinion of many of US) than supporting fauxking felonious corepirate nazi gangster payper liesense stock markup FraUD softwar gangsters.
don't forget: consult with/trust in yOUR creators. providing more than enough of everything for everyone (without any distracting/spiritdead personal gain motives), since/until forever. see you there?
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
The monopoly consolidates you!!!
Never touch an Irish man's Guinness!@#
England have got a remote chance to winning the european championship as on their day they can beat quite good teams[0]. If you add Brazil[1], they haven't got a hope in hell[2].
[0] i dont consider any of the teams in europe, bar portugul[3] and spain as really good any more. Italy have had their day, France are on the same path as Italy, Germany haven't been a good side since the mid 90s (when their team wasn't drawing their state pensions). Holland aren't that good, although they are showing promise of becoming good. Greece? they are crap, dispite them winning euro2004 - they just dont compare with spain, portugul, brazil etc.
[1] yes, i am aware this is a completely hypothetical scenario.
[2] brazil aren't as good as they were circa 96, but they are still a really good side and have proved they can churn out tallent time and time again.
[3] I recon portugul will be a great side in the next few years
rugby! we're talking about football here.
Get with the program, girlfriend *does bimboey clicky waving-infront-of-face thing*