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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