Posted on 14-20-2003

Linux, A Question Of Freedom

"More than two dozen nations are considering proposals to promote or
require the use of Linux in government offices" according to Erwin Gillich,
deputy head of the city of Vienna's information technology unit, which is
likely to choose Linux over Windows on 15,000 desktops. So, who are these
nations?"\

They include Japan, China and South Korea who are collaborating over a plan
to "embrace alternative operating systems" to Microsoft - which means
Linux. It includes India which sees Linux as aiding its fast growing
software industry to become less dependent on US and European outsourcing
and it includes Brazil where President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is
finalizing a policy recommending that federal ministries, agencies and
state enterprises install open-source software. (The goal is for 80% of
government computers bought next year to feature open-source software). As
well as Brazil you can add most of South America, including Peru where the
government publicly dismissed a claim by Microsoft that governments that
back open source were providing an unfair subsidy.

In Pakistan 50,000 low cost computers will be installed in schools and
colleges all over Pakistan (for less than $100 each) that use GNU/Linux.
Pakistan is also considering the use of StarOffice office. Salman Ansari,
an advisor to the Ministry of Science and Technology says "Don't be
surprised if we become the first country in the world to say that all
(government-run) services are going to be GNU/Linux based". In Thailand,
the SchoolNet experiment that seeks to provide computer universal access to
teachers and students in schools is using GNU/Linux. In Malaysia government
bodies are studying the feasibility of developing Linux to become a
"national operating system" similar to the Red Flag Linux project in China.
Everywhere you look, government interest in Linux is growing.

Linux is growing in the commercial market too. IDC is predicting that this
year the number of new Linux servers will equal or possibly surpass the
number of new Windows 2000 servers. Recent Linux wins include two very
significant prizes; Reuters chose to put its Market Data System on Linux
(supposedly generating $200 million in sales of services and server
hardware in the next 5 years) and Ford moved to Linux with a series of
server purchases.