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.
|