HELIOLITH

Long live Brazil my friend! The New York Times today (password) runs a nice piece on Brazil and their increasing promotion of opensource software, that many in the open source community have been following closely. (mirror: Int’l Herald Tribune)

They credit “President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva [with turning] Brazil into a tropical outpost of the free software movement.” The author Todd Benson cites economic savings as the motivation for mandating that government industries move away from Windows and toward free operating systems like Linux. Apparently Brazil is also the first country to mandate that companies developing software with government funding must license and release it as open source!

How I wish we in the US had this kind of progressive thinker in charge of technological programs:

“For this program to be viable, it has to be with free software,” said Sérgio Amadeu, president of Brazil’s National Institute of Information Technology, the agency that oversees the government’s technology initiatives. “We’re not going to spend taxpayers’ money on a program so that Microsoft can further consolidate its monopoly. It’s the government’s responsibility to ensure that there is competition, and that means giving alternative software platforms a chance to prosper.”

The program (PC Conectado) will offer $1000 systems for around $500 subsidized and financed by the government. If Mr. Amadeu and others in favor of Linux and Opensource software are successful, Microsoft Windows (even some watered-down version Microsoft was trying to sell them at a reduced rate) won’t even be an option.

Inevitably, some inside Brazil’s more conservative Social Democratic Party criticize the government deciding what software would go on the computers, advocating for the end-users’ right-to-choose. Some accuse Lalu’s administration of “letting leftist ideology trump the laws of supply and demand.” And why shouldn’t intelligent principals guide a government project to close the digital divide? Paying extra for a wimpy version of Windows is like buying half of an expensive car. Jamais Cascio of World Changing puts it well, “Not surprisingly, a fully-featured version of Linux is broadly considered more appealing than a stripped-down version of Windows.”

Windows is itself only partially extensible via free software, but chiefly depends upon and is embedded in a world of proprietary software for a full range of functionality. On a free OS like Linux, 95% of the software available to expand its capabilities is also free.

Walter Bender of MIT’s Media Lab stated that,

…high-quality free software” has proved more effective in stimulating computer use among the poor than scaled-down versions of proprietary software. Though he said he did not oppose giving consumers a choice, he concluded that “free software provides a basis for more widespread access, more powerful uses and a much stronger platform for long-term growth and development.

Getting more people hooked on Windows is not a good thing. Piracy is already rampant in Brazil, for good reason as technology is so inaccessible for many. Showing more people how powerful and efficient Linux can be is empowering them in the deepest possible way with regard to technology. If the government is paying half the cost of the equipment, and realizing its distribution and financing, they absolutely have the right to guide the people by not offering getting them addictively hooked into a proprietary vicious cycle of consumption.

From Reuters via news.com:

Bender and Cavallo also said open-source software cheaply allows for the development of a skilled community of software writers. “If the source code is proprietary, it is hidden from the general population. This robs them of a tremendous source for learning,” the authors said. …(Open) source serves not only as an example of programming ideas and implementations, but also the development community serves as an accessible social learning community of practice.” …A Microsoft spokesman in Sao Paulo declined to comment.

Brazil under current leadership, shows little respect for the kind of profiteering that puts business and industry ahead of people, like the pharmaceutical companies who disease to continue by maintaining patents and jacking up drug prices. Lifesaving medication, once it exists, should belong to all humankind. Brazil announced at the end of last year that they would be breaking several AIDS drugs patents. Here’s to hoping our country may learn something yet from you, dear neighbor to the south!

(Portugese title idea courtesy of my wife who has long been a player and fan of Capoeira)