Peru lawmakers vote to give open source software equal footing with Micros

[Judi Lynn]

September 27, 2005


Peru lawmakers vote to give open source software equal footing with Microsoft

The Associated Press

Swimming against the Microsoft tide, Peru's Congress passed legislation that would prohibit public institutions from purchasing computer hardware that utilizes only one software platform or "in any manner limits information autonomy.

But a leading freeware advocate said Tuesday it remains to be seen whether President Alejandro Toledo will sign the bill into law.

"There are many associations on a national level that do not agree with this because they believe it will affect their interests," Jose Cairo Gallardo, president of the Peruvian Free Software Association, told The Associated Press.

Congress voted 61-0 last Thursday to approve the legislation. It would allow public institutions to use either proprietary software, like Microsoft's, with its mostly secret source code and licensing fees for upgrades, or open source software, in which the underlying code is available to anyone wanting to revise or customize it.
(snip/...)

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2005/Sep/1187421.htm

[SpiralHawk]

1. You say you want a revolution?

Go open -- all the way

[UncleSepp]

2. Wouldn't this be a killer for Apple in Peru?

It sounds like it would hurt Apple a lot more than Microsoft, since Apple hardware won't run anything but Apple's OS and Apple's OS won't run on anything but Apple's hardware.

[lcordero2]

4. ppc(apple's hardware) runs linux too

Apple will begin switching from ppc to intel hardware in the beginning of 2006.

[tainowarrior]

6. and NetBSD

if you need your apple software to be for server work.

But, MacOSX BSD roots are good enough for it to be a sufficient OS for the hardware, although, if you want to go free, try NetBSD or Linux for Apple hardware.

[UncleSepp]

7. Cool, hadn't used an Apple product in years... thanks!

[LizMoonstar]

3. it would be nice if

someone made something opensource that people who aren't computertechykids can use - you know, for people like me. that's the one advantage of choosing MS; it's been arranged for idiots, so most anyone can learn it.

[rogue_bandit]

8. It is easy, now

I struggled a lot with Linux. I tried it 6 years ago (failed to be satisfied), I tried it 3 years ago (same results), but I recently tried SuSE 9.2 distribution of Linux and found it easy to install and the basic programs were all righ there (writing, browsing, email, spreadsheets). Plus, a lot of games if I wanted to install them all (but I'm not a gamer, I'm a researcher and writer).

You can even try one of the CD versions of Linux...that's right, boots from the CD and it will save docs on your hard drive. You can browse the web, write letters and email, and many other things...a great way to get going in Linux. I don't have a version to recommend, but you can download a CD image and burn one for free.

I don't necessarily recommend Knoppix, but since I mentioned them I thought it best to give people a link:

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

John in Oregon

[tainowarrior]

10. Linux is really try and test

When I started out, I tried Mandrake and Suse, the easiest ones. Then I tried going more deeper and tried Ubuntu, VidaLinux, and others.

Finally, I loved the fast and less-bloated VectorLinux (based on Slackware Linux, one of the most stable distributions).

Now, I use PC-BSD, because nothing beats BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution), which is not Linux, but a Unix-derivative. Linux is a Unix-like clone. They're almost 90% similar in commands and structure, and run the exact same software (The X Window Server, the same Desktop software, like KDE and Gnome). You couldn't tell a Linux or BSD computer apart by looking at the screen. You'd have to run its console to see what's under the hood. BSDs are more stable than Linux (which is stable enough), but don't have all the desktop functionality of Linux.

Wanna try Linux? Suse or Mandrake? Want a good, intermediate distribution, try Vector Linux.

Visit www.distrowatch.com for more info.

The one I use is very user friendly (PC-BSD), and can be found www.pcbsd.org

[david_vincent]

9. Linux is there

I am here to tell you that Linux has reached the point where anyone can use it, and the learning curve is very easy. I haven't used Windoze for 6 years now; at first I used BeOS as my daily OS for about 4 and a half years. I loved it and I'd still be using it except for the PPPoE issue. Now I'm using Mepis Linux and it's dead simple. The current version is 3.3.2. I've been using 3.3 and will be reinstalling to 3.3.2 this week. Installation is flawless. All of my hardware was detected correctly. There are apps included for everything, so it's a totally usable desktop OS out of the box. On top of that, it's free. I urge you to consider taking a good look at Mepis because I think you'll switch when you see what it can do. You don't have to know any more to run Mepis than you do now with Windoze. I've even run and installed apps from the command line, without any trouble. If I can do it, you can too.

www.mepis.com
www.mepis.org

[tainowarrior]

5. i can understand

why gamers (like me) want to keep Windows around to play games. But, seriously, if you're a poor country, why the hell do you want to run Microsoft office-suites and other business software? There is Unix/Linux applications for all business related work that are just as good. And if you insist on using Windows as the OS, there are Windows versions of the same open-source suites of software. No huge $500.00 fees for photoshop!

For example.

Photoshop - Open Source Alternative - THE GIMP
MS Office - OSA - OpenOffice or AbiWord
Windows Media Player - OSA - Mplayer or Video Lan Client
AOL, MSN, Yahoo Messenger - OSA - KOPETE or GAIM
Winamp - OSA - XMMS
Internet Explorer - OSA - Mozilla Firefox
Outlook Express - OSA - Mozilla Thunderbird

And so on.

I'm currently running PC-BSD, a system based on FreeBSD. I do everything I do on Windows, except DVD burning and playing games.

http://www.pcbsd.org
http://www.freebsd.org

Poor countries should adopt open-source software en masse.