Interview with Dr. Villanueva

cigarky writes "I think many of us were very impressed by the recent letter of Peruvian Congressman Dr. Edgar David Villanueva Nuñez. Linux Today has a followup interview with more in-depth information."

Beautiful

[inkfox]

Perú's youth continue to approach Villanueva, offering to march in support of the Bill: "It is the youth that needs to drive its creativity, its intelligence, its intellect ... there are many young people that can create their own employment through [the use] of free software."

Beautiful. "there are many young people that can create their own employment" thanks to free software.

When you hear people complaining that free (as in beer) software is going to cost programmers jobs or cut their salary, or that free software will send us into an economic tailspin, remember this: Both free (as in speech) and free (as in beer) software are making technological revolutions possible in places where it just couldn't happen otherwise. And you can bet that we're going to see good stuff (more software!) starting to flow back the other way.

Considering Microsoft's Position on their own OS

[Domasi]

I think this recent post [slashdot.org] would reasure not only Dr. Edgar David Villanueva Nuñez position but the rest of the Open Source advocates that a secure OS is needed. Would you install a OS when it's creators tell you it is not secure?

Re:Beautiful

[inkfox]

i am pretty sure the only reason this guy posted is because he likes to say "free (as in beer)"

You got me. I am all about free beer. :)

Actually, I wish there were a better term to differentiate between the two. "Free open source" versus "public domain open source" versus "public domain" versus... gah. "Free software" may have been an unfortunate choice of wording, but we'd need something like a permissions mask to cover all the possibilities:

"Oh, frobjazzer is 754." "So the author can do anything, friends can edit and redistribute, but strangers can only redistribute?" "No, that'd be a 732 license. Bit 2 is reselling." "Oh! So MS would be 711?" "No - MS is 700, and requires a hard drive that won't let you chown..." "Oh ho..."

Write YOUR elected reps -- now!

[Anonymous Coward]

When this story broke. A lot of people made comments like: ' I wish we had government officials who were as clueful.' I took that as a clue to write to my elected reps and fill them in on the scoop and also mandate that free software be used over proprietary here in the U.S. You should consider doing the same. Let us make our reps accountable for the IT infrastructure used to do governement business.

Slashdot Interview

[Johnny Mnemonic]

How about a Slashdot interview with this guy? I haven't know many politicians to shy from another couple million eyeballs regarding their pet project, even if it comes from non-constituents.

Re:The Bill

[TrixX]

Try here. [grulic.org.ar].

Actually, this is the text of a bill proposed in Argentina, but it is almost identical (to the point of s/Argentina/Peru/g). The free software deffinition used in both is the same.