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South Africa goes total Open Source


DragonMage
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Lookie here, another nation joins the fold. Seems that South Africa is tired of spending billions of (whatever the money is called over there) for M$ and switch to opensource software.

 

http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/...-6099-0,00.html

 

Anyway, any comment from our resident South African?

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Well, I guess SoulSe has not checked in yet... but that is great. Its taking root here too.

 

Europe, South America, South East Asia, China, India...

 

I wonder if the GNU guys and Linus Torvalds ever thought that their little creation would go this far... and we are just at the tip of the iceberg.

 

Its just not because we are tired of paying dues to bill... the concept of OpenSource and freedom have become practically identical. One company just got so powerful that it is now in a position to dictate what other companies should do, and it did not excercise that power in a benign manner.

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China is moving in, but here at Hong Kong the media and general public are still slow to react (thanks partially, to the cost(less) of bootlegged Windoze & widespread of warez....).

 

Of course, me and my sister have moved to all Linux - with those resources I posted in the sticky post. At another day I convinced my sister to compose MIDI using Rosegarden-4 and to her surprise, it really worked right after installation. Of course there are some bugs around here and there but I am sure the developers will solve them out sooner or later :D .

 

Originally, I was hoping Linux/BSD/open source will provide more choices for every one of us. But it seems that the media/MPAA/RIAA and MS are joining forces on regulating users on how to use their computers. I am afraid other than technical, open source will be moving into the political realm - an unfortunate happening, but still we have to face it.

 

Anyway, I really hope it will take root in South Africa and other parts of the world. It's really interesting to see if US will be slower than the rest of the world in this new tide of technological (as well as social) innovation of software movement. If history is any guide, breaking monopoly and restoring competition will help to create better products, services and knowledge for the society - many of us should benefit from it.

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Our money is called Rand.... and Microsoft will be missing it.

 

I am so proud... I think developing countries are starting to realise that serious cost cutting can be done by embracing Open Source. South Africa is the most prominent country in Africa and usually leads the way economically, socially and technologically, so hopefully this lead to other african countries following suit.

 

I'll post more later - gotsta run. Hello Tux... and welcome to Africa !!!

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As for the Hollings' bill to force computer makers to incorporate copyright protection on the hardware by law, here in the USA (That's U.S. of A. not U. of S.A.),...

 

Since John McCain ® has taken control of that particular Senate Sub-Committe, we can all be pretty much assured that that the Hollings bill is DOA.

 

In recent developments, industry negotiations between the hardware manufacturers, and the media outlets continue, with the major holdout being the MPAA (evil B@$t@rD$). The concensus is that the hardware industry does not want to incorporate the technology in their products based on increase in manufacturing cost and end retail price hikes that may cool technology purchases. The media industry seems to largely be capitulating on the idea of legislative interference, and in favor of a standards adoption that is not forced (probably implemented in software). Again, the MPAA wants "Big Brother" in you computer, MP3 player and DVD player,... may Jack Valenti rot in H. E. double hockey sticks.

 

I still encourage everyone to boycott Disney. They are responsible for Hollings' position. Disney bought the South Carolina Senator at a big discount...

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I still encourage everyone to boycott Disney. They are responsible for Hollings' position. Disney bought the South Carolina Senator at a big discount...

 

Thats hardly hard as i don't like the crap they produce anyway!

As long as they don't have anything to do with "family guy", "red dwarf" & "star trek" :wink:

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I hate to say this but many national governments are more interested in using the linux threat to buy MS$ products at cheaper rates rather than actually use and promote linux. UK and India are good examples of suckers who just pay lip service to the open-source cause while dancing with Bill$$. On the other hand, China's redflag linux is a major distro (even VIA supplies drivers for them in http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=60 ) and it has been produced in collaboration with Chinese universities and government support. Its ironic to see so-called communist goverments going for open stuff while so-called democracies diving for closed-source junk. Once again, open source has turned this world upside down.

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China is very strong and determined to get a national distro; curiously I think Taiwan will stick with MDK (RedHat apparently removed the Taiwan national flag and upset a lot of Taiwanese...) and other established one.

 

Maybe Taiwan will decide to create a local distro, eventually. In Hong Kong, there're distro such as Thiz Linux and Chinese 2000, but for now I will stick with MDK until I learn more about Linux :o .

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