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New Free O'Reilly Ebook: 'Open Source In Brazil' (oreilly.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the software-in-South-America dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Andy Oram, who's been an editor at O'Reilly since 1992, has written a new free report about how open source software is everywhere in Brazil. The country's IT industry is booming in Brazil -- still Latin America's most vibrant economy -- with open source software popular in both startups and in cloud infrastructure. Oram attributes this partly to the government's support of open source software, which over the last 15 years has built public awareness about its power and potential. And says the Brazil now has a thriving open source community, and several free software movements. Even small towns have hacker spaces for collaboration and training, and the country has several free software movements.

24 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. Laguage by ISoldat53 · · Score: 1

    Do program languages in non-English speaking countries use English? Only living in the US I don't have any experience programming in another country. Is there a language that would be more efficient other than English?

    1. Re:Laguage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Sí

    2. Re:Laguage by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Do program languages in non-English speaking countries use English?

      The keywords (if, else, for, while) are in English. The comments and variable names are often in the local language (Portuguese in this case), but most multi-national teams standardize on English.

    3. Re:Laguage by Anonymice · · Score: 2

      I'm British, living & working in Brazil.

      The programming language's syntax never changes, however user defined objects & classes will often be in the regional language. That said, it's not uncommon to find English used where there's a well known standardised name for a function.

      For technology in general, even when translations happen to exist, English language documentation & community support tends to be of a far higher quality & up-to-date. The result is that some terms are translated into the local language, and others not. This creates a bit of a minefield when trying to guess whether to use the English terminology or translated terminology when communicating with colleagues, there isn't always a standard of which to use & it can differ from person to person.

    4. Re:Laguage by bauerbob · · Score: 1

      Excel does translate the keywords. So in Germany we have to write =WENN(...) instead of =IF(...). But real programming languages don't translate keywords.

    5. Re:Laguage by Wootery · · Score: 1

      most multi-national teams standardize on Englis

      See also the blog post advocating exactly this, "The Ugly American Programmer".

  2. The cloud by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    How do they deal with the fact that so much software these days is on the 'cloud?'

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re:The cloud by bheerssen · · Score: 1

      "The cloud" is just code for "other people's servers". You can use open source to create your own cloud system, and there are many open source technologies to do that.

      --
      (Score: -1, Stupid)
    2. Re:The cloud by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      In the decent states (Rio Grande do Sul) some contracts say that the software being paid to be developed has to be open source so that the government can switch contractors

      This should be done more often, all around the world.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  3. Re:Gay Pride by bheerssen · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Go fuck yourself.

    --
    (Score: -1, Stupid)
  4. Re:I think we're passed the stage by haruchai · · Score: 1

    Of open source evangelism, just like evangelism for the personal computer became unnecessary within a couple years of the release of MS Windows 3.0. Even CEOs (who previously said "I don't even know how to log in, I have people working for me who do that") and grandmothers got on board at that point.

    Even Microsoft is busy trying to figure out how to use open source software as a strategy to attract developers and customers.

    It still has to be promoted & nurtured and protected from being co-opted. Fail to do any of those and it won't be long before it's back to being a niche.
    Perhaps when an opensource desktop OS reaches macOS usage levels in the advanced Western economies we can relax a bit.

    --
    Pain is merely failure leaving the body
  5. Re:Not really "free". by johanw · · Score: 1

    You can use a throwaway email address for that.

  6. Re:Not really "free". by fredan · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here's the link: http://www.oreilly.com/programming/free/files/open-source-in-brazil.pdf or http://www.oreilly.com/programming/free/files/open-source-in-brazil.mobi or http://www.oreilly.com/programming/free/files/open-source-in-brazil.epub

    Source: https://gist.github.com/dotevo/66a3320598ac38a64072ec56f9633e8e

  7. So what? by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    That's neither here nor there.

  8. Re:Library of Congress number by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    As far as I understand, pretty much anyone who wants a Library of Congress number can get one.

  9. Proper president by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    There's no such thing as a proper president. Oh wait, I didn't read the whole thing. My bad.

  10. MS to the "rescue" again by markdavis · · Score: 2

    Looks like Microsoft is up to their old tricks and maybe O'Reilly didn't publish fast enough:

    https://fossbytes.com/brazil-r...

    http://www.zdnet.com/article/b...

    They have to work really hard to step in and mess things up for countries trying to break free (or for those who DID break free) from proprietary MS products. Brazil has a lot of corruption, so this seems to fit right in :(

    1. Re:MS to the "rescue" again by iris-n · · Score: 1

      Nope, this is not due to Microsoft; it is true that they were always pressuring to get the government back on proprietary software. But what changed is that last year there was a coup in Brazil and a legendarily corrupt government took power. They happily accepted Microsoft's bribes and the result is what you see.

      --
      entropy happens
  11. Re: Gay Pride by Raenex · · Score: 1

    Baby Jesus cries.

  12. Vibrant economy? by TheSync · · Score: 1

    Regarding "The country's IT industry is booming in Brazil -- still Latin America's most vibrant economy", I think one can make a better case for Chile.

    Brazil's 5-year compound annual growth is 1%, and last year GDP growth was -3.8%. Brazil GDP per capita is $15,615, most recent unemployment was 12%, and inflation is 9%.

    Chile's 5-year CAGR is 3.9%, and last year GDP growth was 2.1%. Chile GDP per capita is $23,460, with unemployment 6.8%, and inflation 4.3%.

    IT outsourcing is more mature in Brazil than Chile, and Brazil's overall GDP is six times larger than Chile's, yes. But is Brazil's economy really "vibrant"?

    1. Re:Vibrant economy? by gwolf · · Score: 1

      It is in the long term. This last year, Brazil had a civil coup. The president, in line with over twelve years of impressive economic growth (compare it to Brazil's many neighbouring countries), was outsted and power was given to the vice-president - Who was a bad choice to partner with, coming from the rival party. He immediatly took it to derail the economic path of Lula / Dilma.
      I am Mexican. My wife is Argentinian. We often travel via Brazil, and have many Brazilian friends. And, yes, the economic growth of Brazil over a decade is quite impressive.

    2. Re:Vibrant economy? by gwolf · · Score: 1

      Well, yes - But Brazil has close to 200 million inhabitants. Chile has only a tenth of the population. Territory-wise, same story: Over 8 million square kilometers (about the same as the contiguous USA). A country might be vibrant even if it starts from very little!

    3. Re:Vibrant economy? by TheSync · · Score: 1

      You understand that Brazil is in the top 10 economies right?

      Italyâ(TM)s $1.8 trillion economy is the worldâ(TM)s eighth largest in terms of nominal GDP (and larger than Brazil's). But I wouldn't call it "vibrant"...

  13. Re:As long as it lasts by Wootery · · Score: 1

    Depends on how much debt he has, and to whom.