Open Source and 3rd world countries

[Joseph Vella]

On Thursday 09 March 2006 18:11, Olivier Nicole wrote:
> > Sorry Nicole, but here in Brazil our government does not use pirated
> > software, and yes, they're changing to Open Source.
>
> That only means Brazil is not much a 3rd world country anymore...
>
> > guess this may be coming to an end, or not expanding, since the new
> > "cheap" computer for the poor people comes with Free Software.
>
> Yeah, sure, government did the same here in Thailand, cheap PC at $250
> with Linux, and every body did installed Windows on it as soon as they
> get home :) Because Free Software was simply not working and that was
> not what they used at school, in the internet cafe and such, there
> were not the latest and coolest games...
>
> Olivier
> _______________________________________________


I've read several accounts of third world governments and schools adopting 
open source.  I've also noticed a decent showing of people from third world 
countries on OSS forums and websites.    I believe there is a rising tide of 
third world interest and programming resources that are going to end up 
making a significant contribution to open source.