As a user of opensource software technology on my PC at home to
organise and manage some small community mailing lists, and
at work to help with my teaching and personal research into
computing languages and operating systems I was very encouraged
to read the message below concerning the projected use in Mexico
of and contribution towards this new technology commonwealth
in a real world development situation.
Personally as I can't see any reason why anyone has much
to gain from a world where all information is effectively
controlled by a single technology company, I am following the
Microsoft anti-monopoly proceedings and the development of
viable alternative software systems with a keen interest.
So what are the advantages of opensource software technology in
development ? The exploding popularity of this approach amongst
IT professionals arises from the fact that no good mechanic
would want to work on cars which were manufactured with
their bonnets welded closed. In the developing countries
there is also the issue of cultural imperialism - having
a system which local programmers can modify to their own
languages, preferences and cultural norms is a very relevant
consideration.
More information about the advantages of opensource
development can be obtained through http://www.opensource.org/
and about Linux on http://www.linux.org/
Richard Kay
[log in to unmask]
Forwarded message from Arturo Espinosa Aldama follows:
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 13:54:25 -0600 (CST)
From: Arturo Espinosa Aldama <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask]
Subject: Mexico's Educative System Goes for GNU/Linux + GNOME
Greetings, beloved GNOME users and developers.
I work as the proyect leader of the "Scholar Net", a program that aims
to bring computers and the net to every elementary and mid-level school in
Mexico. We expect to install from 20 to 35 thousand labs per year to a
total of 140,000 centers in the next five years.
Due to matters of cost, reliability and configurability, we plan to
use GNU/Linux to replace the propietary server options and, now thanks
to GNOME, the propietary desktop application options.
We will develop GNOME to a point where we can get a useful and friendly
enough desktop for the elementary and high school student. There are some
aspects of GNOME, such as uniformity, spanish translation, bug fixing and
application development which we will address to achieve this.
At an average of 20 users per machine, and being all of them school
children and teachers, GNU/Linux will become, at the long term, a major
influence in Mexico. In the short term, GNOME will get an additional
impulse from us and those who will contribute following our guidelines,
and GNU/Linux will prove to be a real-world option for the end user.
For further information and details on the Scholar Net and, specially
for GNOME developers, on how to contribute to GNOME for us to arrive to
deployment stage, please contact Arturo Espinosa <[log in to unmask]>.
Arturo Espinosa Aldama
Proyect Leader
Academic Services Coordination
National Autonomous University of Mexico
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