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Microsoft Thinks Africa Doesn't Need Free Software
DIY News writes "Microsoft has claimed the cost of software is not an important issue in the developing world. According to MS, while you can give people free software or computers, they won't have the expertise to use it."
Ubuntu is a good example . Developed in South Africa
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
AFAIK, Ubuntu was not developed in South Africa, but founded by Mark Shuttleworth, a south african. That's a bit different. It's like saying that Gnome is Mexican because it was started by Miguel de Icaza and Federico Mena who are both from Mexico.
I'll do it for cheesy poofs.
Why can't African states bootstrap?
Colonialism ended less than half a century ago; it takes a lot longer to develop even under ideal conditions.
And conditions are hardly ideal: Africa's most natural exports are heavily disadvantaged by Western subsidies, and economic exploitation of Africa and propping up of undemocratic regimes in Africa by powerful nations continues to this day. Even our so-called economic aid is usually tied to specific purchases from the donor nations, so it isn't very effective, and what isn't tied up that way disappears in corrupt regimes, usually with knowledge of the Western donors.
Right, how about some facts again, rather than easy cut-and-dried witticisms?
Do you know that today foreign aid is mostly used as a tool to force poorer nations to implement the policies (e.g on energy) that the rich nations want, and that more money flows from the poor nations to the rich than the other way around?
And let's not forget cancelling the US farmer subsidies, which do cost billions too (way more in fact), so that agricultural societies in Africa and elsewhere can actually sell their food at a competitive price AND market their way out of poverty?
The fact is that on the world scene just as in Western society the rich make the rules. They draft the laws, they have the police, the army and the resources. The poor just try to survive from year to year. Yes they take advantage of the few crumbs that the rich leave on the table from time to time to make themselves feel somewhat better, but on average the poor get raped almost every time.
The West needs education too.
Best.
Maybe you should take your own advice. The Romans never conquered Africa, in the sense that we use the word. There was a Roman province called Africa, but it was only a part of North Africa.
It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
An no, I don't want to give you money from my former prince/master/dictator whatever. I'm South African, I haven't lived in SA for over 15 years, but I was an IBM mainframe operator there in the 80's and I still visit regularly and have family and friends there. The plus side of the racist white minority rule in SA is that the country got the best infrastructure in Africa, which it still has except that the current government caters to more than a small white minority and thus has other pressing problems as well to deal with.
South Africa is the original home of Mark Shuttleworth and his foundation Ubuntu has an ongoing task in South Africa to teach and install Ubuntu in schools (Hint to Microsoft: It's one fuck of a lot cheaper than a Windows solution). I chat regularly with my mom down there who has a Windows PC. South Africa's biggest problem is a monopoly telecommunication company that refuses to allow competition or lower prices on internet access, thus ensuring some of the highest access prices in the world.
However, if you go accross the border to the north, in Zimbabwe, which is in total financial ruin with an autocratic president who hates whites and the blames everyone but himself for the crap that is going on there, you'll find an infrastructure that was similarly built up by the original white minority government, but one that has almost no new investment since Mugabe came to power ensuring that growth in the IT sector there is non existent.
And that is the case all over Africa, you have some countries which have fairly decent political systems, such as South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, etc and you have others which are either run by despotic tyrants, plagued by tribal warfare or thoroughly corrupt or a mixture of these.
In those countries where there is a semi decent system, the education is usually quite good. In those which are chaotic the people are lucky if they can read or write and those who do know the internet, know it usually from an internet cafe.
Linux has advantages due to its flexibility and low price. Claiming that teaching people Microsoft is better because there are more Microsoft trained people is only true if there really are trained Microsoft people around. Usually, the level of trained Microsoft people doesn't reach the level of even an MCSE, since we all know what an MCSE POS costs, so that advantage is null. Training people from scratch with Linux is in my opinion better since a basic grasp of Linux will enable someone to manage in extremely difficult circumstances where hardware and other constraints would make it extremely difficult to keep a system running with Windows.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-09-06 -poll-iraq_x.htm
Damn right. That expertise is the critical factor; you can't do squat with computers without high-priced training and consultants.
That's why Bill Gates' recognized expertise, formal training, and extensive hands-on experience with the Altair the critical factor that made his implementation of BASIC such a success.
In the same way, his vast experience with OS development was the critical factor to IBM selecting him to produce MS-DOS 1.0 as the OS for the IBM PC.
And that's just how it happened. Bill Gates says so, so it must be true.
[insert loud, long raspberry here]