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MISTICA: Re: Open Source vs. Microsoft in DC

From: carlos a. afonso ([email protected])
Date: Thu Feb 14 2002 - 17:15:11 AST

I agree with the opinion of the moderation - and the cost of this lunch
might be big - let us for one just recall that Microsoft launchs an
upgrade of its desktop products nearly every year now, not to speak of
the requirement for hardware registration which comes with the latest
versions. Does the "donation" guarantee free upgrades also? Hardly.
They will just force the school system in SA (as they become dependent
on the Win platform) to enter the vicious circle of software upgrades,
at a hefty price.

Also, the "donation", thanks to accounting exercises which the Enron
case just exposed (which therefore will just become more
sophisticated), might go into M$ books as discounts over tax payments.
There is no better business than fake philanthropy business.

More and more local and state governments in Brazil are moving into
open source (not radically, of course - keeping an open view, as the
article from bridges.org suggests, but considering cons like the above
and others), like the governments of the city of Porto Alegre, of the
state of Rio Grande do Sul, of the city of Campinas, city of S�o Paulo,
and recently at the federal government level also - equipment to
network public schools might have Windows but will also have Linux and
will be configured in dual-boot mode. Etc etc...

--c.a.

Nota de la moderaci�n: Algun@s pueden tal vez recordarse el episodio cuando IBM
regalo a cada pa�s de America Latina (salvo Cuba y Nicaragua) un sistema 34
para integrarse a las redes academicas.
La donaci�n se hizo a traves de la OPS, y fue como en 89.
El costo del lunch: era mas caro equipar esas computadoras con tarjetas de
comunicaci�n que de comprar unos PC
para la misma funci�n...

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