(for the record I happen to live in Lima - Peru) Although it's true that social benefits like redirecting licensing money to more worthy causes like helping to foster education in some of Peru's most desolate regions may never become reality (we all know very well that sadly interests all seem to point inwards and not the other way around ), it's also true that Peru is a third world country, the government currently is indebted to software providers like Microsoft which sadly tie the whole public apparatus to propietary and non-compatible software, breaking this bond to a sole corporation should be an important goal, the freedom to choose whatever suits the state better, and the freedom of the citizens to inspect the inner workings of software that drives many important data that affects them. Unlike someone in a previous thread stated (who evidently doesnt know anything about Peru besides the fact that yes, there's poverty, and yes, there are llamas) the BSA is very active in here, and in fact it's permanently doing raids in conjuntion with the state, licence inspections as they call it, applying heavy fines to schools and businesses. There's not that much money to pay the licensing costs of Microsoft's software, yet the free software alternatives don't thrive in here yet, maybe the approval of this law will help give the movement a much needed thrust. It would definitely do so much good, the consequences of being in a country which is soaked in the Microsoft mentality reach way beyond the mere monetary aspect, as a student of Computer Science I've sadly seen what our universities and institutes have turned into, which is centers of commercial-mentality brainwashing, with almost no room for research and individuality, churning out more MS certified engineers who are chock-full with MS specific knowledge and no solid bases.
Slashdot Mirror
(for the record I happen to live in Lima - Peru)
Although it's true that social benefits like redirecting licensing money to more worthy causes like helping to foster education in some of Peru's most desolate regions may never become reality (we all know very well that sadly interests all seem to point inwards and not the other way around ), it's also true that Peru is a third world country, the government currently is indebted to software providers like Microsoft which sadly tie the whole public apparatus to propietary and non-compatible software, breaking this bond to a sole corporation should be an important goal, the freedom to choose whatever suits the state better, and the freedom of the citizens to inspect the inner workings of software that drives many important data that affects them. Unlike someone in a previous thread stated (who evidently doesnt know anything about Peru besides the fact that yes, there's poverty, and yes, there are llamas) the BSA is very active in here, and in fact it's permanently doing raids in conjuntion with the state, licence inspections as they call it, applying heavy fines to schools and businesses. There's not that much money to pay the licensing costs of Microsoft's software, yet the free software alternatives don't thrive in here yet, maybe the approval of this law will help give the movement a much needed thrust. It would definitely do so much good, the consequences of being in a country which is soaked in the Microsoft mentality reach way beyond the mere monetary aspect, as a student of Computer Science I've sadly seen what our universities and institutes have turned into, which is centers of commercial-mentality brainwashing, with almost no room for research and individuality, churning out more MS certified engineers who are chock-full with MS specific knowledge and no solid bases.