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Brazil: Free Software's Biggest and Best Friend
soneca writes "From the last two years, Brazil's president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has turned the country into a tropical outpost of the free software movement. The government is switching from costly operating systems made by Microsoft and others to free operating systems."
Google news (includes reg-free nytimes link).
I hope nothing under the GPL is being used, as Brazil has a pretty sketchy record of recognising intellectual property rights.
The article you link to is about breaking patents and manufacturing their own AIDS medication. Before someone jumps up and down screaming "so it's OK if it's medicine?", read the linked article to realize that this is A-OK according to a UN rule stating that nations can break the patent and produce their own medications in the case of an emergency. From the numbers I've read, it wouldn't be un-reasonable to say Brazil does have an emergency.
Brazil has demonstrated that they have tried to play fair, and have paid for the medications from multinationals until now, despite being vocally against the said multinational corporation's tactics. They also make clear that they are "breaking" the patent, not outright ignoring it, in accordance to UN rules.
I think we can jump up and down and throw a fit after some other more serious, blatant and un-ethical IP violations are put under the light. So far I don't think there's anything wrong with the Brazilian gov't using OSS. Or home-brewed HIV/AIDS medication.
Norway has actually a very good project in this regard Skolelinux. The project aims at making a bespoke Linux distro for Norwegian schools, including supporting both "flavours" of the Norwegian language (something MS have been reluctant to do). Statskonsult, the state-owned company dealing with public management development, has actually called SkoleLinux "the only ICT solution taking the schools'resources and plans seriously".
Fortunately, Linux is strong where I happened to get my M.Sc. The OS-dependent subjects (Concurrent & Network programming, Operating Systems etc.) are taught on Linux. There is a .net course but it's outside the main curriculum.
That is not entirely correct. Brazil does have very strong software companies that build business apps; invoicing, accounts receivable/payable, supply management, tax automation and the whole nine yards. Only that software tend to be targeted at Brazilian companies mostly (Portuguese language, sometimes Spanish as an option) and to small to mid-sized businesses.
We don't have anyone writing operating systems (out of academia, that is) and office applications, so it's natural that FOSS look appealing in those areas.
Other than that, IT is very strong in services, support and custom apps, here, and in that realm FOSS is again a very good fit, as it allows one company to fully customize a package to suit special needs, while not being encumbered by proprietary licenses.
I am no means a Microsoft support and I do like Linux and I try to support it when possible. But having a policy of all OSS Software is just as bad as having a policy of Every program needs to be Commercial. While Linux and other OSS application are getting better every year there are some things are just not as good as Commercial Applications, a lot of people would agree the GIMP is not quite up to Photoshop standards, or Linux Printing Services are by no means as easy to setup then Windows (Especially for smaller networks), OpenOffice and all the other OSS Office Clones still don't have a working grammar checker. I haven't yet found an OSS RAD (Rapid Application Development) tool for Linux that is as easy to use a Visual Fox Pro, or even VB. I support the method when they are looking for software to fit there needs they examine the most affordable first and see if it does what they want then go to a higher price. If they nothing does what they really want then go back down to the OSS version.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I am in Thailand right now and I have in the pack in front of me, next to the PC, the localised versions of XP and office and they put some windows up in Thai and others up in English. I am talking from very current experience. I have not tried Japanese so I cannot argue but I know that the Thai version keeps reverting to English and I had to install Office on another machine here that had English removed and the install refused, telling me that it needed English.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
I heard on NPR yesterday morning that they are also the biggest software thief in the world today.
Nobody who's done business in China would believe that.
It's not the biggest one (it's hard for everyone who lives here to believe that, since it's so easy to buy pirated software), but recent researches have shown that Asia leads on all pirate penetration stats.