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South African Minister Locks Horns With Microsoft

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the speaking-truth-to-monoploy dept.

naheiw writes "The South African minister of public service and administration on Monday addressed the opening of the Idlelo 3 free software conference in Dakar, Senegal, saying that software patents posed a considerable threat to the growth of the African software sector (video). Microsoft responded aggressively, saying that 'there is no such thing as free software. Nobody develops software for charity.'"

3 of 325 comments (clear)

  1. Open source == no documentation by blhack · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Malcolm Rabson, the managing director at software company Dariel Solutions, said the open-source technology appeared to be free but did not come with a "rich" set of documentation for the project, which required high-end skills. This guy has never talked to any OpenBSD folk, has he?
    I recommend this to him.

    Jump into #openbsd on freenode, and ask the guys to explain something to you.
    See if you still have any trouble finding "rich" documentation for open source projects then.
    --
    NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
  2. Minister... by nickname29 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I think the minister should take a big cup of shut the fuck up. She is the minister of public works - her department is a cesspool of incompetence and corruption. Why should she take on another separate topic if she can not even do the job that she is paid for?

    If the government really wants to encourage free software, why not sell their share in Telkom and act against that monopoly? It is impossible for most people to get a basic internet connection in the country. If you do get ADSL, it is capped - this fucks with most internet activities (including outsourcing, call centers and back office work). In all fairness, Telkom is a much worse monopoly than Microsoft can and will ever be.

    How the hell will you download a new copy of your favorite Linux distribution? (500MB costs around R189).

    To me it looks like the governments "open source" policy is to gather around a bunch of incompetent programmers. They are then paid (with tax money) to write bad open-source software that no-one will use. Yipee kay jay.

    Now back to "evil" Microsoft. Microsoft provides all of its software free to any educational institution in South Africa (Academic Alliance). By that I mean everything - Visual Studio .NET, Visio, Office, SQL Server, etc.. Now open source Nazi's are going to rail against this. But remember, there is a market for .NET programmers (for example as outsourcing). If this is what brings in the money, then so be it.

    Oh, yeah. The Bill and Melinda charity provides a shitload of money for anti-AIDS programs. This is while the current president makes statements that poverty causes AIDS, and the minister of health promotes beetroot as a cure for AIDS.

  3. Re:Equivocation by westlake · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    To fight back, I think we should be calling it "freedomware" rather than "free software."

    ever notice how the eyes of a non-technical audience glaze over when the geek launches into his latest attempt to explain the connection between free speech and free software?

    free speech has meaning only within communites that share the same language and the same values. to anyone other than a programmer, software is - and will remain - a product or a service.