Continued Look at Global Open Source

sebFlyte writes "In the second part of its look at open source in governments around the world, ZDNet takes an interesting look at open source in the developing world. Pricing obviously is an important factor (if you look at GDP, MS prices in Vietnam are the equivalent, for local people, of charging just shy of $50,000 for a Windows XP license in the US), but other issues arise, such as Brazil's 'sense of community', a certain amount of security-related worries from the Chinese, and language issues in India. A good analysis of the advantages of open source generally, the huge benefits it can have in developing markets, and the fact that open source is on the up despite massive amounts of lobbying and pressure from some proprietary vendors."

Comments

Re:Awesome

[captain igor]

Mostly US? Last I checked a LARGE portion of OSS developers were from Europe.

Except that Vietnam prices are MUCH smaller

[MyTwoCentsWorth]

(if you look at GDP, MS prices in Vietnam are the equivalent, for local people, of charging just shy of $50,000 for a Windows XP license in the US)
But of course, MS is not charging US prices in Vietnam. Every time I see authors using misleading data like this, I see no reason to trust their judgment or conclusions.
Cannot stop YOU all from doing that, though...
Happy Posting.

Re:Except that Vietnam prices are MUCH smaller

[Anonymous Coward]

You've misunderstood. That is the Vietnamese price, but expressed as a percentage of average Vietnamese wage, and then multiplied by the average US wage.

Your reading comprehension is nearly as bad as your writing.

Re:MIT $100 laptop.

[Cheapy]

So...You go from 50,000$USD to 26315.79$USD?

Assuming my math is correct, (and the price for Windows XP is the same in Vietnam as it is in the US) the $100 MIT laptop would cost that price above: $26315.79.

Sure, it's a nice saving. But it isn't realistic.

Here in mexico

[Spy der Mann]

we went thru a HORRIBLE crisis on 94, the dollar was valued 3 pesos per dollar. Now it's near 11, meaning software costs about 3 times more.

Would you be paying 600 dollars for a legitimate copy of Windows XP? And here a very good pay is $1000 dollars a month. It's no mystery then that most software in Mexico is pirated.

Still it's an awful dependance on foreign products (businesses MUST use legitimate software), which is another reason why i support the OpenDocument initiative.

Re:Here in mexico

[chochos]

I think it depends on WHERE you live in Mexico. 1000 dollars a month is a good salary on certain small cities, but certainly not in Mexico City, where the cost of living is much higher, but so are the salaries (usually). A single guy needs to earn about 2000 dollars a month if he wants to rent an apartment for himself (say 500 dollars a month in a so-so area).

Comparison to GDP ... pretty strange

[courtarro]

I was planning to write a long comment concerning how retarded it is to compare prices on the basis of GDP [1], which makes about as much sense as comparing price ratios to the ratio of the number of sheep in a country. It's misleading at best, considering the large difference in the populations of the two countries. It's probably more accurate to compare the per-capita GDP [2], which yields the result that Windows (which costs $200 in the US according to the summary writer's numbers) would cost about $15,000 in Vietnam. However, this too is somewhat inaccurate because a) no one pays full price for Win XP Pro non-upgrade, b) You don't have to have XP Pro to get most of the benefits of Windows, and c) MS offers XP Starter Edition in Vietnam, which is supposedly offered for as low as US$15 [3]. Then again, when you figure that price based on per-capita GDP, it still comes to the equivalent of $1120, which isn't small change. So yes, the price is still pretty terrible, but when it comes to the intricacies of currency exchanges, is it fair to pound Microsoft on the basis of price comparisons when they're already discounting a product roughly 75% ?

Oh wait, free products aren't affected by currency exchanges. Oh well ...

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_ GDP_(nominal)
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_ GDP_(nominal)_per_capita
[3] http://news.com.com/Windows+for+India,+others+wont +run+on+faster+chips/2100-1016_3-5704942.html
[4] 1 - (Price of XP SE) / ((Price of XP Home non-upgrade) * 0.60), assuming SE has roughly 60% of Home's features ... wildly estimative!

Microsoft is Free in Third World

[bayers]

Microsoft Windows XP doesn't cost anything in the third world. They will give you a free copy at any internet cafe. Perhaps they will charge you a minimal charge for the CD and their time.

Same goes for linux or Adobe photoshop.

All software is practically free in the third world. Access to a computer is another thing.

Re:EXACTLY!

[microwave_EE]

Don't forget that here in the states, the drug companies also market directly to the doctors. I know several medical assistants, and the drug reps regularly would come in and leave "samples" for the docs to give out, and they'd buy everybody lunch. All of this is done in hopes that the doctors would prescribe their company's meds...and once a few folks get hooked on claritin (sp??), or Zoloft, or whatever, then the drug company will more than have recouped their investment.

As a Brazillian citzen...

[vhogemann]

... and a government employee, I have one or two things to say:

First, actualy there is no coerent effort to push OpenSource solutions in the Federal Government. There are isolated efforts, and little coordination between them.

I work at the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Dept. of Health Care (Secretaria Municipal de Saude), we has been working on a really open framework for the past 3 years, based on Java + Tomcat + Hibernate + Firebird runnig on Debian. It's already used on a social program called Medicine at Home (Remedio em Casa), that delivers medicine by mail for people with diabetes and high blood pressure.

We had plans to extend this, and use the same framework to devellop a full hospitalar management solution, based on opensource sollutions, and enterprise ready. But it has been put aside, in favor of a project develloped by the Federal Ministery, called SNIS.

SNIS (National System for Health Information), is a nightmare of ill concepted technologies. Everything is based on proprietary solutions, such as Oracle Forms, Windows and even WindowsCE.

But the worst part are the special build PCs running WindowsCE, made of an ITX motherboard, 320x240 LCD touchscreen, termal printer, and SmartCard reader. They are meant to be used for data input, such as schedule consults on a ambulatory. The idea is that those custom "thinclients" would be cheaper to mantain than regular PCs... This could be true, if they didnt cost U$900,00 each! And, to make things even worse... the only firm that makes those babies is Procomp, a firm that is owned by DIEBOLD!!!

So, belive me when I say that OpenSource is a priority for the Brazilian government only when there are political interests behind it.

Interesting

[cerebrum_interfectum]

I am from a south-eastern European country, where an average salary is cca 200 euros, nevertheless Windows XP Pro is priced at 150 euros (90 e for Home edition), Office 500 e - so much for making things 'affordable' in developing countries... The 'reformist' government even made a deal with Microsoft, making it a sole software supplier for governmental agencies and even educational institutions. So, I'm paying MS through taxes even, and waiting for a day when my kids (which I plan to have ;) ) will be taught something their parents do not approve of. Unless, of course, Microsoft has disappeared from the software market untill those day came :)

Re:EXACTLY!

[cecom]

Ha ha ha. Don't make me laugh! (Through tears, that is). Healthcare in US is atrocious. I am not saying that the doctors are incompetent (I am not qualified to judge that), but they sure don't try very hard. You have to really insist for tests or real treatment - if you just leave it to the doctor the usual prescription for anything is Tylenol.

That is, only if you are lucky enough to have health insurance. The problem is not only being able to pay for it (most smaller businesses don't pay for their employees health insurance, or cover only up to 20-50%), but even being elligible. Forget about getting personal health insurance if you've been sick before - it is insurance after all - they have to make money, so you'd better not use it! ;-)