Brazil,
China and India decided to go with Linux
By
Halime Inceler Sarihan
The war of the operating systems between Microsoft Windows
and Linux is a contest between proprietary software and free
software.
I
watched Microsoft’s
version of the Matrix parodgy at the
2003 Comdex as part of Bill
Gate’s keynote. It
was really interesting. Bill Gates showed
a spoof
of the Matrix with chief executive officer Steve Ballmer
cast as Neo and himself as Morpheus. Bill
Gates stars as the enigmatic rebel Morpheus fighting to liberate
humankind from evil computer consultants from IBM. Because in Microsoft's
version, the Matrix is a world filled with IT consultants working
for IBM Corp. and selling Linux, while the world outside the Matrix
is Windows, which frees
the IT masses," Gates says in the parody "Take the big blue
pill and this story ends," and he
says
to Ballmer, referring
to a pivotal scene in the movie and also to IBM's nickname take the
red
pill and you stay in Wonderland. I think
it is good
to have different options to
become a free in the
Matrix. Anyway we are free to take red pill
or blue pill. It is
good to have more options.
I am loyal Windows user (taking blue bill) but I am
also truly amazed
and surprised by the resourcefulness, creativity and overall
enthusiasm that abound in the Linux community. The
thriving
band of Linux programmers are driven by the satisfaction of
writing good code and winning peer
respect Linux
is gathering momentum in all corners of business and government. Federal agencies
in major powers including France,
Germany, and the United States have adopted Linux for servers.
Cost
is a factor, although many network administrators consider Linux
more stable and less
susceptible to viruses and hacker attacks. In
Brazil President
da Silva, who leads one of South America's largest economies,
appointed self-proclaimed Linux adherent Sergio Amadeu to head up
Brazil's IT Institute. Brazil signed a letter of intent with IBM to help boost government
use of such platforms as Linux.
He believes that open
source Linux is the cheapest way forward for Brazil's
170 million population many of whom own personal computers. By moving over to Linux,
Brazil saves money, makes computers affordable for poorer people,
and gains independence. Any move away
from Windows use by Brazil's government
would clearly hurt Microsoft in its biggest South American
market.
From the Associated Press: "If he is to make good on his promise to improve
life for the tens of
millions of Brazilians who live in dire
poverty, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva knows that one
key
challenge is to bridge a massive technology gap. And if that means
shunning Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) software in South America's largest
country, then so be it." Sergio Amadeu, the head of
Brazil's
National Information Technology Institute, says, "Paying
software licensing fees to
companies like Microsoft is simply
'unsustainable economically' when applications that run on
the
open-source Linux operating system are much cheaper."
Linux is spreading at the grass roots level. It’s interesting to
note that China, India and Brazil
are supporting Linux.
In India the Department of Information Technology has already
devised
a strategy to introduce Linux and open source software
as as de-facto standard in academic
institutions, especially in
engineering colleges through course work
that encourages use of such
systems.
In
China, Sun Microsystems has
won a contract to put Sun's Linux-based Java Desktop System
on
between 500,000 and million desktops during 2004. Sun Chief
Executive Scott McNealy
commented "This I believe makes us the
number one Linux desktop play on the planet. That's not
the only
opportunity. We're calling on every ministry of information
technology on the planet."
I think the fight between
free software and proprietary software will continue.
To contact
author please send e-mail to halimei@etm.pdx.edu
Reference:
Associated Press,
Related
links:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/tech/2228133
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