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The Almighty Buck Software Linux

John Barlow Pushes Open Source in Brazil 249

Posted by CmdrTaco from the stuff-to-read dept.
greysky writes "This story on Foxnews.com reports that as part of the larger World Social Forum, Barlow spoke on how open source software can help alleviate financial problems of developing countries: "Already, Brazil spends more in licensing fees on proprietary software than it spends on hunger"." NPR talks about how Brazil plans to switch 300,000 machines over.
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John Barlow Pushes Open Source in Brazil More

John Barlow Pushes Open Source in Brazil

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  • As a Libertarian (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 31, 2005 @10:01AM (#11528083)
    Shouldn't he want the government to spend the same on software as on poverty? $0?

    • Re:As a Libertarian (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 31, 2005 @10:08AM (#11528151)
      Here's a hint; the first sign you are an idiot is when _you_ start to tell people what _they_ think, according to the little mental boxes _you_ have fitted them into, and that _you_ have defined characteristics for.

      • Re:As a Libertarian (Score:3, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Do _you_ always _use_ these _underscore symbols_ to _highlight_ words? How do _they_ translate _into_ your _speech_?

  • Maintenance (Score:5, Informative)

    by LEgregius ( 550408 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @10:03AM (#11528109)
    In developing countries, licensing cost are astronomical compared to labor charges, so even if all the MS FUD were true for the US and Europe regarding TCO, it wouldn't be the case in developing countries since the cost of training and paying labor to do upkeep on the systems would be relatively low. I'm not saying I believe TCO is higher for linux, just that it would still be cheaper in developing countries.

    • Re:Maintenance (Score:3, Insightful)

      by adam_j_bradley ( 836728 )
      I thought that in some developing countries that the financial burden of software licensing wasn't an issue at all...

      • Re:Maintenance (Score:5, Insightful)

        by acariquara ( 753971 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @10:30AM (#11528370) Journal
        It usually isn't if you are at home, but businesses do have to pay for their licenses, or they may be charged with tax evasion, and that is a serious offence even here in Brazil.

        That being said, I have some expericence in setting up networks for my former college (federal institution, here the best colleges are the public ones, usually) and they *really* don't give a flying shit about using warezed copies of Windows in their labs, and no one ever has complained/charged/arrested/whatever.

        • Re:Maintenance (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Spy der Mann ( 805235 )
          and they *really* don't give a flying shit about using warezed copies of Windows in their labs, and no one ever has complained/charged/arrested/whatever.

          It's exactly the same in Mexico. But frankly, with $100, $200 or even higher costs of licensing Windows PER COMPUTER, I can't blame them. Microsoft should stop this "Windows starter edition" bu115h!7 and give much lower license fees to developing countries. Like for example, $25 for Home, and $30 for pro. Per household in homes, per computer in enterprise
          • First of all, if you're referring to Bill Gates, he's a billionaire, not a millionaire (technically I suppose the one encompasses the other, but we're not going to get all pedantic here, are we?).

            Secondly, if Microsoft started selling Windows in Mexico at $30 a pop, they'd be admitting that the value of their software is $30 a pop, not $300, and there'd be no reason for anyone to think they could continue selling it in the U.S. and Europe at $300 a copy. They're not going to do it unless they get really ha
            • In Burlington, Vt, there used to be a restaurant called Carbur's, which used to have funny menus. Vt also has a Representative to Congress named Bernie Sanders (I, Vt) who used to be the Mayor of Burlington, and used to call himself a Socialist.

              Carbur's used to have a sandwitch in honor of Bernie, called "The Red Herring," and it was "priced according to your ability to pay." That harkens back to a prime tenet of Communism, "from each according to his abilities."

              The irony here is that Microsoft claims to
              • No, they're not. The starter edition is a lesser product at a lesser price. Unlike the sandwich, you don't get the same amount even if you can't pay as much.

                I fail to see the issue here other than the fact that it's a lousy product.

                In addition, socialists are not communists even though it's chic to compare the two in an insulting manner. I can see where the sandwhich got its name....

                • The starter edition is a lesser product at a lesser price.

                  It's hard to believe that this "lesser" product is a genuine deficiency. It's a deliberately hobbled horse.

                  What I mean is that Windows Thai edition doesn't seem like it should have cost proportionately less to create than the Windows XP Industrialized Country Corporate Edition.

                  Likewise, a few years back people noticed that the difference between NT Server (expensive) and Workstation (less expensive) amounted to, well, not much more than a few re

          • Microsoft should stop this "Windows starter edition" bu115h!7 and give much lower license fees to developing countries. Like for example, $25 for Home, and $30 for pro.

            That's the main reason why DVDs have regional encoding, so studios can sell DVDs cheaper overseas and those DVDs can't be shipped back to the states in bulk and sold at the lower price undercutting all the retailers.

            If you sold XP Pro in Mexico for $30, you wouldn't find a legitimate copy in any store, because all the stores would be se
        • A pack of hungry auditors [bsa.org] might convince them that linux is a good idea.

          Brazil
          HOTLINE: 0800.11.00.39 Inside
          Phone: 5511.3897.8686
          Fax: 5511.3897.8687
      • I thought that in some developing countries that the financial burden of software licensing wasn't an issue at all...

        It isn't, till the US govt starts leaning on the local government to enforce software licensing, under pain of losing trade benefits. Then there is a crackdown, often purely symbolic, but it means no high profile users, like government departments or large corporations, can get away with it. Then they start putting pressure on "naked PCs", sold without (licenced) OSs.

    • Re:Maintenance (Score:4, Informative)

      by ceeam ( 39911 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @10:21AM (#11528285)
      In developing countries the cheap labor just installs whatever they are comfortable with and pisses on all of your "licensing costs". Do you seriously think that someone without Unix background will dive into it for $3/hr? Come on. Also - do you think that some local "big cahunna" will trust the cheap worker more than a US company that sells its software for a huge amount of money (represented by seriously looking "suits")?

  • OMG (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 31, 2005 @10:03AM (#11528112)
    Fox news and open source, not sure what a Slashbot should do... malfunctioning.. ERROR... untrustworthy evil neocon news site speaks of open source holy grail greatness... err DOES NOT COMPUTE...

    NO CARRIER

    • Re:OMG (Score:2, Insightful)

      by FunWithHeadlines ( 644929 )
      I noticed that too and thought it was very funny. The network that is against freedom of thought talking about freedom of expression in software.
      • Some right-wing type who can't think for his or herself modded my comment as Troll, but I wasn't trolling, I am serious about what I said, and the evidence is plain to see on any Fox News report. Just look for the propaganda techniques, the slanted, emotionally-laden leading words, and the way they march in lockstep with whatever the White House talking points of the day are. Then look at how they treat anyone who thinks differently than they do. That is the definition of being against freedom of thought

    • Re:OMG (Score:3, Informative)

      by ninewands ( 105734 )
      Relax, take a deep breath ... Fox was merely reporting what was said at the conference not extolling the virtue of FOSS ... and DEFINITELY not endorsing the things said at the conference. If you will note, they did say "Activists at a leftist gathering ... " in their opening blurb.

      Breathe deeply, calm down ... all is normal.
      • Relax, take a deep breath ... Fox was merely reporting...
        The Associated Press reported this story; Fox merely put it on their website. not your fault, as you were led astray by the author of this Slashdot posting.

        it's REALLY important to distinguish a story merely printed by a news source from one actually authored by one, especially from a news outlet like Fox...

  • Licensing Fees (Score:5, Insightful)

    by teiresias ( 101481 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @10:05AM (#11528129)
    "Already, Brazil spends more in licensing fees on proprietary software than it spends on hunger"."

    A point most modern countries should take note of. When licensing fees make up such a large part of your operating budget, it seems foolish to simply accept it and continue with business and not look for other options.

    I'd prefer my country spending a little bit less on licensing fees and a little more on it's people.

    Of course, without the newest version of Office, I suppose they couldn't make neato graphs to justify the latest software licenses expenditures.

    • Re:Licensing Fees (Score:3, Insightful)

      by chris09876 ( 643289 )
      When I read that, my jaw dropped open. That's just sick. I don't understand how a country can think it's acting for the good of its people when it spends so much money on licensing proprietary software. I suppose there are worse things - for example spending that much money on weapons to kill people when your own people are starving..., but things like that probably point to bigger issues in the administration.
      • Yea but some things are distorted. Maybe the average cost of a meal in brazil is 33 cents (remember Sally Struthers and how she said that 33 cents will feed some kid for a day). So when you compare that to the fee's of a product that might cost $100, that comes to 333 meals. Hell I spend more about 30-50/day (center city life is expensive)!!! The numbers could potentially be skewed.
        • Yeah. You can prepare a meal here for US$ .33; and it will be as bad as a similarly priced meal is outside the metro areas in the US. Don't be silly.

          In the bottom line, meal prices are the same all over... the difference is in the top line. To me, US$ 15 (R$ 40) buys a luxury lunch, sans wine. Now, the *average* meal in BR, even home-prepared, costs US$ 3... as I suppose it can cost in the US.
          • You have numbers to prove that the average home made meal in Brazil costs $3.00 just like here in the US? See when I travel abroad, especially to poorer countries - i tend to eat a lot more for a lot less (and that is considering I eat out all the time). For example - when I went to Israel. I bought a breakfast that cost me (after currency conversion) $10.00 - there was enough food on that plate to feed me, my mom and my mom's fiancee and then still have left over plus orange juice, coffee and crossiants.
      • "I suppose there are worse things - for example spending that much money on weapons to kill people when your own people are starving..."

        The US does this.
      • Need I remind you that 85% of statistics can be easily distorted...

    • Re:Licensing Fees (Score:2, Informative)

      by AndroidCat ( 229562 )
      In the 80s, Brazil went the route of not respecting any outside IP rights for software or hardware. I imagine that digging themselves out of that hole is part of the reason that they're paying so much now. It would be ironic if punitive licencing fees "until the pips squeek" now drive them to OSS alternatives.
      • In the 80s, Brazil went the route of not respecting any outside IP rights for software or hardware.

        As I recall (I was in college in the late 80s), what we had was a law prohibiting the importing of cars and computing goods, not a law obliterating copyrights and patents...

  • Hunger? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 31, 2005 @10:08AM (#11528158)
    I'm all for governments saving money -- here, Brazil or anywhere else. But it's worth pointing out that what Brazil spends on "hunger" is constrained by the fact that there isn't widespread starvation there. (There are plenty of desperately poor people, obviously.) Brazil isn't Sudan.

    By the way, just how long is Barlow going to coast on co-writing some Grateful Dead lyrics forty years ago? Isn't there a statute of limitations or something?

    • Re:Hunger? (Score:5, Informative)

      by spif ( 4749 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @10:43AM (#11528529) Journal
      By the way, just how long is Barlow going to coast on co-writing some Grateful Dead lyrics forty years ago? Isn't there a statute of limitations or something?

      Yeah, you're right, it's not as if he co-founded the EFF or has a fellowship at Harvard Law or anything like that.

      hmm. [eff.org]

    • By the way, just how long is Barlow going to coast on co-writing some Grateful Dead lyrics forty years ago? Isn't there a statute of limitations or something?

      Statute of limitations? Well, only if you consider writing Grateful Dead lyrics to be a criminal act. (Surely "Mexicali Blues" wasn't that bad, was it? :-)

      Copyright duration, on the other hand...

    • Re:Hunger? (Score:3, Informative)

      by scottfk ( 125751 )
      There isn't starvation in Brazil? Maybe they're not on the scale of Sudan, but there is definitely widespread hunger in the Northeast.

      The closest I can find to a stastic is at the bottom of this article:

      http://www.globalaging.org/ruralaging/world/lul a 2. htm

      It says that depending on who you ask, between 16 and 46 million (read the article for an explanation of the variation) out of a population of 171 million go hungry.

      If you read Brazilian Portuguese, peruse http://www.fomezero.gov.br/ for more inform
    • Yeah.

      FYI, there is a considerable number of people (more than 10 million) under the line of "absolute poverty" in Brasil. They live in the Northern and Northeastern regions, and they starve to death (in the case of Northeastern people, normally in drought seasons, which occur in a 14 year cycle and lasts for 3 years).
    • "By the way, just how long is Barlow going to coast on co-writing some Grateful Dead lyrics forty years ago? Isn't there a statute of limitations or something?"

      There is, it's death+70 years.

  • Embarassing! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by bogaboga ( 793279 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @10:09AM (#11528170)
    from the article: "[...] but the loosely organized event ran into an embarrassing glitch Saturday when two big screens betrayed the fact that the computer was running on Windows, with the operating system's toolbar visible at the bottom of the screens.[...]

    This is unacceptable. Why did they even have Windows systems anywhere arround? Let me hope these systems were not brought in by one inclined to subotage the whole event. M$ must be laughing...!

    • Re:Embarassing! (Score:4, Informative)

      by obender ( 546976 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @10:21AM (#11528276)
      From TFA:

      Lessig noticed and the computer was quickly disconnected and replaced with a laptop running on open-source software.

      They replaced the windows computer as soon as they discovered it. I wonder how long before that becomes common practice all over the world.

    • MS special-ops team are sitting in their cozy office after being pinned the Bill Gates MS Medal of Honor on them. "Good job on the sabotage."

      While they did replace the systems, I personally believe a blend of products works. As long as the products can communicate with each other, i think each person should use what they feel most comfortable/productive with.
    • M$ must be laughing...!

      MS should thank these guys for turning off Windows before a possible public blue screen [slashdot.org] scenario.
    • WSF is a BIG event, with presenters from many countries, on many topics. It's not surprising if some presenter there (who may know nothing about open source) would have Windows on their laptop, especially if they're there to talk about seed diversity or labour rights in Nicaragua or some such.

  • Numbers Please (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ironsides ( 739422 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @10:09AM (#11528171) Homepage Journal
    "Already, Brazil spends more in licensing fees on proprietary software than it spends on hunger".

    Can anyone provide the numbers to back this up? Also, I would like to see about what the ratio is between the two.
    • Can anyone provide the numbers to back this up? Also, I would like to see about what the ratio is between the two.

      I don't think this is information is true. Brazil has the largest program to adopt open source in world. Wired run an interesting story [wired.com] about this last November.

    • Da numberz... (Score:5, Informative)

      by jorlando ( 145683 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @11:49AM (#11529299)

      The budget for the fome-zero (zero-hunger) program of hunger erradication among porr families is R$1.68 billion (around US$630 million)

      Source: Orçamento do programa Fome-zero (budget for the zero-hunger program)
      http://www.camara.gov.br/internet/direto ria/Conleg /notas/2004_4758.pdf

      its a official document from Camara dos Deputados (brazilian federal legislative house, deputy chamber)

      The stimated value spent by the brazilian government (cites, states and federal government) is R$2 billions (around US$ 740 millions). that info is from the consulting firm 4Linux http://www.linuxplace.com.br/sqush_place/105898724 2/index_html

      There is a specialized secretary for IT strategies (Secretaria de Logística e Tecnologia de Infraestrutura) that is collecting data to present "official" values expent with licences.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @12:33PM (#11529743)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • The numbers quoted in other responses to this post seem to vastly understate spending on hunger, by reducing the definition down to a single program. This excludes any kinds of agricultural subsidies (which of course are far from a anti-hunger program, but usually do have the effect of reducing prices of food for poor people in addition to the usual propping up of farmers that's the real point of them). This also ignores any kind of social welfare support to poor people that will almost certainly have a lar

  • FTA (Score:3, Insightful)

    by nitio ( 825314 ) <{paulo.ruthes} {at} {gmail.com}> on Monday January 31, 2005 @10:12AM (#11528192) Homepage
    All the social forum's 800 computers are running on open-source software, but the loosely organized event ran into an embarrassing glitch Saturday when two big screens betrayed the fact that the computer was running on Windows, with the operating system's toolbar visible at the bottom of the screens. Lessig noticed and the computer was quickly disconnected and replaced with a laptop running on open-source software.
    If only all proprietary software "problems" could be solved just by disconnecting...
  • means more funding for the soccer clubs too.
    GOOOOOAAAAALLLLLL!

  • Adopting Linux... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by demon_2k ( 586844 )
    There must be a reason why more and more government agencies are adopting Open Source solutions. And i don't think it's all due to promotions. If must be worth the trouble for any organisation for any company to change something that's worked before for something else.
    Im interested in TOC, but it's hard to establish where the truth lies. I trust Microsofts comments about the cost of Windows vs Linux about as much as i trust the Open Source community.
    • Developing countries government adopting linux seems to be a win-win situation:

      - Government can save licence money (provinding there's no TCO increase) and use it for more important things (a what is not more important than giving away money to some first world corporation ?)
      - People (government IT staff, users etc.) get linux training. Which will eventually transform into more linux user and more contributions.

      In short, that kind of moves would greatly help linux reach the "critical mass" holy grail

  • Well Duh (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 31, 2005 @10:24AM (#11528313)
    Already, Brazil spends more in licensing fees on proprietary software than it spends on hunger.

    Well I would hope so. Who would want to buy hunger?

    Now if they were to compare it to how much they spend on pleasure, that would make more sense.

  • benefits / costs etc (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Exter-C ( 310390 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @10:25AM (#11528330) Homepage
    One of the biggest benefits to open source is that it gives them a choice to use against microsoft and others on licensing fees. At the end of the day companies making billions in profit do it at the end users expense. I agree that they have R&D budgets to improve business and in general software costs are dropping but you cant beat the ability to develop your own operating system specifically for the department that you want and the root use of that departments need. eg water comapny only monitoring water etc.. no over heads reduced security risks etc. Its much more difficult to do on a windows based operating system simply because the underlying operating system still has the same fundamental flaws as seen previously with the rpc etc etc worms/vulnerabilities.

  • It makes sense. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cabazorro ( 601004 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @10:30AM (#11528378) Journal
    You run a government agency in Brasil.
    You use your budget to:

    A. Pay a team of OSS programmers for IT support and in the meantime create jobs and promote domestic-grown-owned-designed and controlled IT resources.

    B. Pay for comercial software licenses and thus cut jobs and have the Brasilian tax-payer money go to some trans-national company and meanwhile turn your back on domestic-grown-own-designed IT resources.

    MS will shove enough free or discounted mackerel down your throat so you don't learn how to fish and remain somewhat hungry.
    • Finally, someone that gets it.

      It is, indeed, better to try and avoid the software monoculture and currency evasion (SOME of the money has got to go to Microsoft/Oracle/Adobe/whatever), use and promote free software alternatives as Linux/MySQL/Ghostscript/whatever and keep the money flowing INSIDE the country and boosting the economy as a result.

  • Funny Fox News-peak (Score:5, Insightful)

    by br00tus ( 528477 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @10:32AM (#11528403)
    "The activists in Brazil are generally united in their oppositon to what many call unbridled capitalism and the policies of the Bush administration." - Something said so often that it's practically a mantra of WSF activists is that they oppose unbridled capitalism (or capitalism, period), and imperialism. It's funny how the US corporate media chokes on printing that word, even when describing what someone else says, and changes it something vague like "the policies of the Bush administration". They won't even print the word when they're reporting on what activists say, it's like the BBC using an actor for Gerry Adams voice. I mean, go to Google News [google.com] and search for the word imperialism - the first hit is a paleo-conservative web site, the second hit is a communist web site, then a South Korean site talking about Japanese WWII imperialism, then Al-Jazeera. It is one of those words commissars, I mean, editors, excise, even when they're just reporting about what someone said. The thing that gets me is not only do the mainstream corporate media not use the word, they won't even report when others use the word. Fox takes it to the point of ridiculousness, but it's not much different with NBC and so forth (owned by GE, which makes billions as a military contractor by the way).

  • I'm not a fan of Clinton but.... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by leereyno ( 32197 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @10:36AM (#11528455) Homepage Journal
    I do think he put it best when he said that the best social program is a booming economy.

    The idea that the government can accomplish any good by spending money on a nebulous problem like "hunger" is foolish at best. Work on improving the economy and hunger will take care of itself. As for Brazil, they really, really need to work on establishing a viable middle class. The situation right now looks like a validation of marxist idiot-ology.

    Lee

  • Nice to see someone else can read between the lines of Microsoft's bogus TCO studies. [microsoft.com]

    If anyone ever uses the TCO argument on why they lean on MS products, point to Brazil. With the economic problems they have, they have to make smart decisions. And they went with Open Source.

    It's an excellent proof of Open Source having the lower TCO.

  • Where's the cost savings? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rudy_wayne ( 414635 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @10:42AM (#11528520)

    Governments and businesses want service and support. They are unlikely to purchase any software without it. So take a look at Redhat for example. Their price charts are confusing and horribly laid out, but as near as I can figure, for Redhat Desktop Linux they are charging $13,500 (US) for '50 desktop entitlements'. That's $270 each. How does that represent a savings over Windows?

    I guess they could hire a bunch of high school kids to download a free Linux package and then install it on 300,000 computers. But that seems unlikely.

    • Well, Windows XP Professional costs about $300-500 per seat with no support.
    • RedHat is a pain to deal with. They seem to be outstanding contributers to the Linux community, but their Sales leaves much to be desired. Enough on that.

      So where's the savings? Good question. One irritant I've run in to recently is CALs. With Linux, there are no CALs. With Windows, I have to play license shennanigans to figure out what CALs apply to what users... and then suck up hidden costs to purchase additional CALs.


      I guess they could hire a bunch of high school kids to download a free Linu

  • Story on NPR about this... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Bravo_Two_Zero ( 516479 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @10:43AM (#11528528)
    No, I'm not grousing about my rejected submission of the same story... much ;)

    NPR's Morning Edition had a short story on this as well: Brazil Makes Move to Open Source Software [npr.org]. The audio has been posted, too. It's not a deep look at open source economics, but it does make the point about Microsoft's main concern of Brazil's actions lending credence to other governments following suit. BillG has requested a meeting with da Silva [technewsworld.com] to discuss it (again... they met in 2002). And, it's nice to see the topic discussed in mainstream media.
  • I imagine that the baseline TCO for Windows with automated patching and a modicum of standardization compared to Linux is pretty good. But in the last year or two none of these TCO calcs account for the almost asymptotic influx of malware, spyware and generally invasive shitty gorp from toolbars to helper apps as well. Cleaning up that mess is a huge problem not just for Brazil but for all of the large companies people here on /. work for. In addition OS desktops e.g. Linux allow the admins to lock down the
  • "Brazil already spends more on proprietary software than on hunger". Is this supposed to be a bad sign? I'd be very surprised if it was any less true in first-world countries.
  • Steve Ballmer was seen boarding Clippy One for a urgent flight. No news as to the destination, but he was seen packing huge discounts, a large tutti-frutti hat, and practicing various Carmen Miranda [wikipedia.org] song and dance numbers. Where will the Ballmer Bombshell land? Stay tuned!
  • The following are movie quotes from the movie Brazil, which have nothing whatsoever to do with the country. The movie is named after the theme song.

    Sam: I only know you got the wrong man.
    Jack: Information Transit got the wrong man. I got the *right* man. The wrong one was delivered to me as the right man, I accepted him on good faith as the right man. Was I wrong?

    Sam Lowry: Excuse me, Dawson, can you put me through to Mr. Helpmann's office?
    Dawson: I'm afraid I can't sir. You have to go through the proper
  • The government of Brazil says it will switch 300,000 government computers from Microsoft's Windows operating system to open source software like Linux. Microsoft founder Bill Gates wants to meet with Brazil's president to discuss the change. Brazil is dropping all proprietary software.

    Brasil: "Ok, then I'll get it from the shop down the street. I'm walking now, waaalking...!"
    Microsoft: "Allright allright, but you're robbing me blind here!"

    This hasn't been newsworthy in years.

    • FYI (Score:3, Informative)

      by hummassa ( 157160 )
      I work for an State Legislature in the 3rd largest (economically) State of Brasil, Minas Gerais. We are switching (OpenOffice.org first, then Firefox...), slowly, but we are.

  • Transcript of NPR story (Score:5, Informative)

    by Thagg ( 9904 ) <thadbeier@gmail.com> on Monday January 31, 2005 @11:23AM (#11529002) Journal
    Brazil is changing all 300,000 of its federal government computers from Windows to open source software like Linux. Brazil's interest in different forms of software could be the beginning of a long term shift in the software market. That has Microsoft's founder Bill Gates wanting to talk to Brazil's president, Luiz Ignacio Lula de Silva. Alex Goldmark reports.

    Choosing which software to buy may not seem like a scintillating topic. But, in Brazil, excitement is high about switching to Open Source software like Linux, the free operating system which users are free to copy, modify, and distribute as they wish. Brazil isn't just dropping Windows, but all proprietary software. They want access to the code of the software they buy, and to the information that it provides access to. This could spell trouble for Microsoft's business model, according to Georg Greve, president of the Free Software Foundation Europe, which promotes and coordinates open source software projects.

    "Brazil certainly poses one of the largest threats to Microsoft there is right now." Greve took time away from a software reception to talk about the importance of Brazil's decision. "If people take that as an example as they are doing all over the world, people look to Brazil for this. Then, the whole monopoly could actually be in danger. So, for Microsoft, it is a pretty seminal thing to stop this now." Up to now, only 10 percent of the government computers are Windows-free, but proponents of Brazil's plan realize, that if Brazil follows through, and becomes the trendsetter it wants to be this could be the beginning of a critical shift in the software world for developing countries. At the World Social Forum hosted here in Brazil this week, John Perry Barlow, founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a cyberspace civil liberties group, commented on Bill Gates's moves at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

    "Where Bill Gates, who may be the most powerful man in the world, sought an audience with Lula. Why did he do that? Because he is afraid of Brazil. Why is he afraid of Brazil? Because the government has taken the initiative to move this country to open source code."

    Across town, at a government sponsored event to promote open source software, Brazil's intentions were clear. [translated] "For Brazil, we don't have any interest in supporting proprietary solutions because we are decided on supporting companies that believe in open source models. Sergio Amadeu is the head of the Brazil Open Source Technology Institute. Next to President Lula, he is the final word on Brazil's software choices. [translated] "We are not against any specific companies. But, there are companies like Microsoft that want to fit the world into their business model. We defend open source because it is better for innovation, better for competition, better for security, and better for stability."

    Microsoft representatives in Brazil were not available for an interview. In an e-mail, they said Gates and Lula met in Davos two years ago, and the two have many things to talk about, including bringing technology into impoverished communities, and promoting Brazilian industry. Open Source was not mentioned. Sergio Amadeu, however, was eager to talk about Brazil's open source ambitions. He has been in contact with Venezuela, Korea, India, and several African nations promoting his cause. And that is just what Microsoft is worried about.

    For NPR, I'm Alex Goldmark, Porto Allegre, Brazil

    --
    transcribed by Thad Beier without permission
    thad@hammerhead.com if you wish to complain

  • More on the trip from Lawrence Lessig's blog (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Dammital ( 220641 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @11:25AM (#11529029)
    Lessig accompanied Barlow on that trip to Brazil, and wrote a pair of inspirational blog [lessig.org] entries [lessig.org].

  • The Debate in Peru - A must read (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 31, 2005 @11:56AM (#11529369)
    Guys, you should take a look at the response that a Peruvian congressman gave to Microsoft Peru, when they tried to defeat the open source iniative for the peruvian government. All the debate is there, at the end Bill Gates went to Peru, bought the president and the country kept screwed... Here it is: Click here to read the response [diaplous.org]
  • "Already, Brazil spends more in licensing fees on proprietary software than it spends on hunger"

    I'm not sure if that should be taken as a good thing, as in there is so little hunger in Brasil that software licensing exceeds spending on hunger, or if it is a bad thing in that there is so much hunger in Brasil and that the software license fees still outweigh the spending on hunger... perhaps the submitter should have taken a course in logic before positing that daft statement...

  • Pardon my cynicism, but I still think Brazil is shopping for a better deal. Whenever you hear one of these "$Government Plans to use Linux" stories, it seems inevitable that Microsoft ends up offering them huge discounts, and the next story you hear is "$Government decided to stick with Microsoft after all." They always take the carrot.

    But if they're serious about it, do you suppose that Microsoft has a commando force waiting in the wings to stage a coup? They certainly have the resources to pull somethin

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