Windows in Brazil Costs 20% of Per Capita Business Income

mjasay writes "Ever wonder why open source is so popular in Brazil and other BRIC nations? As one study suggests, one big reason may well be Microsoft's punitive pricing, which exceeds 20 percent of Gross National Income for businesses in Brazil (and 7.8 percent of consumer GNI). This leads to a second, related reason: At those prices, there's little hope that Brazil can build a home-grown software economy on the foundation of proprietary software. This factor is exacerbated by Brazil's widespread disdain for the United States, which also tends to favor software that is not perceived as American. Of late the free and open-source Brazilian dream may be fading a little but its importance to the long-term growth prospects of the Brazilian economy shouldn't be understated."

Comments

Reality has no party or bias.

[inTheLoo]

People in Brazil don't like M$. People in tech like free software. Get over it, the non free software model is doomed because it can't compete with free in any sense of the word.

You can make this into a story of wealth distribution because knowledge is a form of wealth but it's not "liberal" or even socialist. Free software lets you help your neighbor and yourself but it's not about property.