Before anyone complains, I don't believe in any MS's TCO studies and I believe that TCO is the most important issue for a private company.
For governments, it is a whole diferent story. Stallman's free as in freedom gets a much larger perspective.
The Brazilian government is not comparing two products, Windows and Linux, nor it is in a leftish anti-Microsoft cruzade.
It is about the contracts. Why should any sovereign nation sign an EULA that gives it no rights whatsoever. We got so used to this way to rent software that we forgot that it is the government that defines how it purchases any goods. Not the other way around, why should software be diferent?
Imagine a bridge where the blueprints are trade secrets and the constructor has no responsibility if it crashes.
It is not overstated.
The numbers presented show the Federal Government's IT budget. The right number that should be compared to hunger expenses is the US$ 1 billion Brazil sends overseas every year exclusively on software licenses.
This is a 2002 number, but it includes both private and public expenses. Sources: The Central Bank of Brazil and Softex, Brazilian Society for Software Exelence: http://www.softex.br/media/SetordeSW_Geralrevisado.zip
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Before anyone complains, I don't believe in any MS's TCO studies and I believe that TCO is the most important issue for a private company.
For governments, it is a whole diferent story. Stallman's free as in freedom gets a much larger perspective.
The Brazilian government is not comparing two products, Windows and Linux, nor it is in a leftish anti-Microsoft cruzade.
It is about the contracts. Why should any sovereign nation sign an EULA that gives it no rights whatsoever. We got so used to this way to rent software that we forgot that it is the government that defines how it purchases any goods. Not the other way around, why should software be diferent?
Imagine a bridge where the blueprints are trade secrets and the constructor has no responsibility if it crashes.
It is not overstated. The numbers presented show the Federal Government's IT budget. The right number that should be compared to hunger expenses is the US$ 1 billion Brazil sends overseas every year exclusively on software licenses. This is a 2002 number, but it includes both private and public expenses. Sources: The Central Bank of Brazil and Softex, Brazilian Society for Software Exelence: http://www.softex.br/media/SetordeSW_Geralrevisado .zip