If Gates would like to make charity, he could start with its own products, wich is a big load for poor coutries, like Brazil (and China, for example).
I am from Brazil and my country spend something like 1 bi dollars licencing its windows computers per year. This money is essencialy governmental, since illegal copies are common except in the government, public schools and enterprises. This is the same amount of money that goes to hospital from all along the country a year (1 bi).
I think it is hypocrisy to charge so much money and later, when you are already rich from exploitation, to go back and make a little donation. We do not need donations, what we need is products that solve our problems, with fair pricing. So, by the time, GNU/Linux is a good solution, but only few initiatives have been take place, and a couple of politicians are fighting for the open source computing in Brazil.
If you want a example, the price of WinXP Pro is tagged in two minimum salaries, wich means that a family of four people can be mantained two month with the money you pay for only one windows license. If you go ahead with and think about MS-Office, anoter family can be mantained for more 4 months.
I work 20 hours a week in my lab, and if I'd like to buy a student edition of MS-Office I would have to work two months and do not eat anything a single day.
Slashdot Mirror
If Gates would like to make charity, he could start with its own products, wich is a big load for poor coutries, like Brazil (and China, for example).
I am from Brazil and my country spend something like 1 bi dollars licencing its windows computers per year. This money is essencialy governmental, since illegal copies are common except in the government, public schools and enterprises. This is the same amount of money that goes to hospital from all along the country a year (1 bi).
I think it is hypocrisy to charge so much money and later, when you are already rich from exploitation, to go back and make a little donation. We do not need donations, what we need is products that solve our problems, with fair pricing. So, by the time, GNU/Linux is a good solution, but only few initiatives have been take place, and a couple of politicians are fighting for the open source computing in Brazil.
If you want a example, the price of WinXP Pro is tagged in two minimum salaries, wich means that a family of four people can be mantained two month with the money you pay for only one windows license. If you go ahead with and think about MS-Office, anoter family can be mantained for more 4 months.
I work 20 hours a week in my lab, and if I'd like to buy a student edition of MS-Office I would have to work two months and do not eat anything a single day.
This don't sound like charity for me.