Let’s see; Germany told them, "Auf Wiedersehen," China said, "Huí tóu jiàn," and now it looks as if Brazil is bidding Microsoft a not so fond, "adeus!" It seems that Brazilian President, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, believes that one way to help bridge the social/economic gap between the haves and the have-nots in his country is to start making extensive use of home-grown open-source software in government and scholastic institutions.
According to an AP article, President da Silva believes that the lower cost of using open-source software could do a lot to bring computers to those would not normally have access to them, and that it would relieve some of the continuing debt his government faces. The Associated Press article, Brazil Leans Away From Microsoft has the details:
Silva’s top technology officer wants to transform the land of samba and Carnival into a tech-savvy nation where everyone from schoolchildren to government bureaucrats uses open-source software instead of costly Windows products.
Such a policy makes eminent sense for a developing country where a mere 10 percent of the 170 million people have computers at home and where the debt-laden government is the nation’s biggest computer buyer, says Sergio Amadeu, the open-source enthusiast appointed to head Brazil’s National Information Techonology Institute by Silva after the president took office this year.
Paying software licensing fees to companies like Microsoft is simply "unsustainable economically" when applications that run on the open-source Linux operating system are much cheaper, Amadeu said. Under his guidance, Silva’s administration is encouraging all sectors of government to move toward open-source programs, whose basic code is public and freely available.
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Although Amadeu insists the government has no plans to mandate open-source software use, Microsoft is worried and is lobbying to prevent the policy from becoming law.
"We still think free choice is best for companies, the individuals and the government," said Luiz Moncau, Microsoft’s marketing director in Brazil. "There is the risk of creating a technology island in Brazil supported by law."
Read the full article for more information and insight into the tough choices Brazil and other South American countries must make.
The Mac Observer Spin:
Big Redmond should be worried; if Brazil goes open-source so will many other South American countries. While it is true that such countries are considered to be ‘developing’, their future economic potential could be significant.
One argument Microsoft tries to make against the use of open-source software is that there will be more cost in service of systems that use it. Beliefs such as these show just how out of touch Microsoft is with its customers.
Servicing systems require manpower, which Brazil has in abundance. Training people to service systems can be extraordinarily expensive if you use Microsoft software, but open-source software is free or nearly so; training can be done on a shoestring, thus creating new job opportunities for many. To compete with open-source on the Brazilian playing field, Microsoft would have to almost give away the training tools and software. While it can afford to do so for Brazil, it may not be able to afford to absorb that kind of cost for all developing countries.
So, what should Apple be doing to insure its place in developing countries like Brazil? That’s a tough one. Apple can’t afford to give away OS X, but it can promote the use of Darwin as an alternative to Linux and other open source OSes. By doing so, Apple gets its name and products in the hands of those who could potentially buy Apple products in the future. Perhaps Apple could even offer low-cost G3 iMacs in these markets, including a bundled Darwin install for those wishing to go entirely the open-source route.
In the developed world, Mac OS X market share is just as important to Apple as hardware market share (though for different reasons). In the developing world, it is very likely hardware sales might be the only opportunity Apple has as those markets are increasingly going the open source route. Cheap, G3-powered iMacs have little R&D costs going forward, and a Darwin bundle could well be Apple’s best hope to grow sales in the developing world.
Mind you, we understand that this is clearly not Apple’s business model, and that it isn’t likely that Apple would adopt such a business model. The company has the assets in place (Darwin and G3 iMacs), however, to compete in these markets should it ever wish to do so. It’s a different world, but a sizeable portion of the world that will only grow as technology costs lower.