Microsoft Thinks Africa Doesn't Need Free Software 729
DIY News writes "Microsoft has claimed the cost of software is not an important issue in the developing world. According to MS, while you can give people free software or computers, they won't have the expertise to use it."
No, they don't need free software (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:5, Insightful)
We wouldn't want all of that aid money to be spent on expensive software to create the country's infrastructure when it could just be free in both senses of the word.
Just playing devil's advocate.
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Insightful)
(playing devil's advocate as well
That being said, there is indeed no reason to pay for a resource when a free equivalent is available.
And to further debunk the MS argument, there are several ongoing efforts where NGOs are "on the field" as well with free software to provide with the basic expertise to help get
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course putting a linux box in a hut without electricity isn't going to make anyone's life better.
I would like to help as many people as possible, but I am neither a diamond company CEO nor the head of a major oil conglomerate. Just an IT person like many of the other people here.
I do think that the places in africa (or any other continent for that matter) that are developed and stable enough to sustain a computer lab could be helped with open source software. It won't have the same effect as overthrowing the area's warlord or sending truckloads of food to a famished area, but its not a bad thing to want to help people in areas of our own expertise.
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:5, Interesting)
So yes, modern technology does have a frontline role in solving problems of war, genocide and human rights in developing nations. Just because you can't think of how these technologies can help, doesn't mean you are right.
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:4, Insightful)
Although I agree its dangerous to paint a whole continent with one brush, its exceedingly hard to find a single stable economy run, by an open government, that upholds 'progressive' ideas like human rights.
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:5, Insightful)
>those bases covered before we start doling out the software, shall we?
Sure they need food. But to feed themselves they need a competitive modern economy. To get that, computers can help.
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:5, Insightful)
B.
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Insightful)
That's the price they pay for aid. They can have the aid and the strings, or freedom and no aid. Apparently they've opted for the former.
Max
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Insightful)
That's the price they pay for aid. They can have the aid and the strings, or freedom and no aid.
Then it isn't "aid", it's a bribe, and a pretty despicable one at that.
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Interesting)
As I understand it, the British, went to the trouble of preparing the colonies, teaching them how to set up a decent government and generally preparing beforehand for the transition. The French basically said to their colonies, "you're on your own now". Pretty much all
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Informative)
Maybe you should take your own advice. The Romans never conquered Africa, in the sense that we use the word. There was a Roman province called Africa, but it was only a part of North Africa.
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Insightful)
Other than that
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Insightful)
Remember that those states that are at the very bottom of the GDP/person ranking are among those that have been exploited the most by the West during and after the colonialist period, not to mention racked by war, disease, famine and natural disasters.
In fact the thinking has been going at the World Bank for
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem with this argument, of course, is that the people who now have the debt on their back aren't the ones who caused it in the first place. Now, one can make an argument that the current people inherited the original debt-makers, and therefore inherited the debt too; however, the debt was not caused by their actions, so I fail to see
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:5, Insightful)
Let me be the first one to tell you that there are people in africa who have have houses, clean water and food. Furthermore there are people in America who have no clean water, no food and live outside.
So people in Africa need computers, they need industry, they need commerce, they need an economy. WIthout those they will never get enough food for everybody. Of course not everybody will be fed, just like in America not everybody is fed, but you can't wait till everybody has enough food to start your economy.
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Insightful)
Besides, it's not as if AIDS isn't a problem in US, albeit not as bad, so maybe you sho
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:5, Informative)
Do you know that today foreign aid is mostly used as a tool to force poorer nations to implement the policies (e.g on energy) that the rich nations want, and that more money flows from the poor nations to the rich than the other way around?
And let's not forget cancelling the US farmer subsidies, which do cost billions too (way more in fact), so that agricultural societies in Africa and elsewhere can actually sell their food at a competitive price AND market their way out of poverty?
The fact is that on the world scene just as in Western society the rich make the rules. They draft the laws, they have the police, the army and the resources. The poor just try to survive from year to year. Yes they take advantage of the few crumbs that the rich leave on the table from time to time to make themselves feel somewhat better, but on average the poor get raped almost every time.
The West needs education too.
Best.
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Insightful)
Everybody knows the old saying, "give a man fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you feed for life". Well, I always think of U.S. aid to Africa being, "give a man fish and take away his fishing rod"
The foreign aid policies are designed to:
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Interesting)
Or you could stop keeping them in poverty by ruining global markets with your illegal subsidies and trading practices - why do you think they needed to borrow in the first place?
'Billions to combat AIDS'? The biggest way you could help there is not to insist on the ability to enforce patent rights on anti-retroviral drugs.
Giving a little aid makes you all feel so big, but what you're doing
Re:No, they don't need free software (Score:3, Interesting)
The United States is one of the lowest per GDP contributors to the international aid effort and most of that aid is severely resticted in its allocation - the bulk of it goes to US contractors/consultants/suppliers and only a fraction of it actually going to help the people who need it.
With a similiar gusto to yours, President Bush announced recently a tripling of international aid - unfortunately, the level of aid was so low to begin with, nowhere near that promised, that tripling only brought it closer
... Nice (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, you've got to start somewhere.
Re:... Nice (Score:4, Interesting)
Personally, I think if that statement is true, it would still be true if the word "free" is struck out:
Of course, that would be Microsoft shooting themselves in the foot, but that'll *never* happen, will it??
Freedom is most important (Score:3, Insightful)
And while, Free (as in Freedom or Independence) is helped along by Free or Open Source Software, open protocols and data format
Re:... Nice (Score:3, Insightful)
Which is why you're wrong.
In summation: Microsoft can't compete with free.
Actually it can and is
"Microsoft is not a helicopter dropping relief materials; we're there in the field."
Neil Holloway, the president of Microsoft for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said that training in IT skills is the most important issue in emerging markets. Microsoft is involved in a number of training activities in Africa, including the Partners in Learning programme, which helps train teach
Training (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Training (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Training (Score:3, Insightful)
It's just a new way of stupidity brewing (Score:5, Insightful)
If anything - this shows the level of stupidity at Microsoft.
Re:It's just a new way of stupidity brewing (Score:5, Informative)
Re:It's just a new way of stupidity brewing (Score:4, Informative)
Re:It's just a new way of stupidity brewing (Score:3, Insightful)
I believe you are right (Canonical being based on the Isle of man, and linux
I did a Google search http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=ubuntu+linu x+south+africa&btnG=Google+Search&meta= [google.co.uk] andhttp://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=ubuntu+l inux+developed+in&btnG=Search&meta= [google.co.uk]
Which pretty much the top few sites stating it was developed in south Africa
Re:It's just a new way of stupidity brewing (Score:3, Insightful)
Thank you for pointing this out - sometimes it almost appears that, as far as 'developed' countries are concerned, Africa is a country that can be classified under one big umbrella.
Wake up, people! Africa is a continent with many different economies, where you get everything from the poorest and most corrupt such as Zimbabwe and DRC to reasonably well developed countries such as South Africa.
You will be amazed to know how many technological breakthroughs have historically co
Re:DID YOU READ THE FUCKING ARTICLE? (Score:3, Insightful)
They know... (Score:5, Funny)
Errr? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, sure, if you give them the software for free they might lack the expertise to use it.
But if you charge them for it instead, then you've gotten a tiny amount of cash, they've lost (~)months of their savings, and they STILL lack the expertise to use it!
-:sigma.SB
P.S. Interesting. Firefox "parses" </?P> tags. :S
Which when you think about it (Score:3, Insightful)
Which in my experience, really, is exactly what happens in the first world...
Not just Microsoft are poorly-informed (Score:5, Insightful)
Newsflash: Most Africans do not live in huts on the savannah.
They live in cities and towns. They have access to technology. They're just as smart as you and I.
While I did attend a few hours of BASIC training way back in the dark ages of computing, I learned most of it myself by just having access to my computer. These days, computers are (more) user friendly so the story just strikes me as being stupid bordering to racist.
Re:Not just Microsoft are poorly-informed (Score:3, Insightful)
No shit, Sherlock. And most Americans don't wear cowboy hats and rustle cattle. And most Australians don't hop around in the pouch of a kangaroo. What's your fucking point?
The point is Mr Watson.... (Score:5, Insightful)
People may have their stereotypes about the US, but I think roughly are better informed about how the US really is (we would not assume that having computers or access to technology is an imposibility for most USians) than USians are about Africa.
Just check this thread later. The comment "but they need food/medicine/whatever first" will inevitably show up.
Re:The point is Mr Watson.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Err...right. Because no other culture in history before the US ever thought the world was created through supernatural means rather than through physics.
Re:The point is Mr Watson.... (Score:5, Insightful)
See, to me, those are all reasons to worry about what they think, given that they implement policies (both domestically and internationally) based on what they think.
I'm an American, and lots of my fellow Americans scare the willies out of me.
Re:The point is Mr Watson.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, this is just wrong. They think democracy is intrinsically linked to capitalism.
This is wrong too. Half the population thinks Saddam was responsible for 9/11.
0-for-3 so far. Where are you from, anyway? I wouldn't waste my time worrying about what they think.
Then I guess you should have got off at the last stop, 'cause America is driving this bus. I bet you're still pretty happy to take advantage of American research, technology, and engin
Re:OT: Re:The point is Mr Watson.... (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-09-06 -poll-iraq_x.htm [usatoday.com]
Re:Not just Microsoft are poorly-informed (Score:3, Insightful)
Africans throghout the contininent have a lot of problems, and only the very privledged (relatively) can both have access to computers and use them to inrich their lives. Here are some figures about africa fro
uhm yes (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:uhm yes (Score:5, Insightful)
I have a very small hadful of relatives that have no electricity and no running water. They live in the mountains of East Tennessee (Appalachia). But, they are far from uneducated. While they are not too up on modern stuff - theater, pop culture, music, and generally "new" stuff I would bet on them for reading, math, and history over the average "educated" person in any western world (not the top, but the average). It may not be hard to beat me (see my sig), but they are quite good at the basics and thier idea of basics are higher than the vast majority of high schools.
All of them have homemade generators, water purification systems, a good personal library (no TV means lots of reading), and working vehicles (including farming stuff) that they totally maintain themselves. They have a pretty good understanding of biology and botany - better than quite a few "educated" people I've known. In short, they are humans - just as smart as anyone else just not educated in the same way we are. In fact, given that they do not have access to alot of our non-brain usage past times they seem to be beter adaptable. They understand advanced Comp Sci algorithms MUCH faster than my other non-CS friends, they find uses for them that would never occur to me, and many other things. They interact with the "modern" world quite a bit - a few of them electricity is just a few hunderd yards away (the terrain precludes them from getting it though), they are not backwards. If you ever met them you wouldn't know, other than they don't really know much about survivor, Microsoft, or other popular culture bits. However they are very knowledgable about things that are covered in periodicals, newspapers, and other written material - much more than the standard American.
I have little to no experience with rural Africans, in high school I had a friend from Ghana and in college a person from Nigeria - both were amongst the most intelligent and educated I've ever known. But, given that humans tend to be, well, humans, I would expect that the vast majority are fairly intelligent and not far from my relatives. Maybe not educated from a perspective of a city person, but then in many ways better than those from the city (just as a country person wouldn't get along in a city, the city person doesn't really get along in the country either - they are just different).
I live in rural Kenya (Score:3, Informative)
There is a huge unemployed population here. Most businesses employ more people than they need. You go to the greengrocers in the city and someone will push your cart, select the best produce, and carry your bags to your car -- for the quarter tip you give them -- which is likely what they work for.
The two people we employ in our house went thr
Re:uhm yes (Score:5, Insightful)
Interpretation (Score:3, Insightful)
In other News... (Score:5, Funny)
Nestle (Score:3, Informative)
You'd be surprised that in a region, West Africa, which produces a hell of lot of coffe and has a coffe culture which is on par with Italian coffe, "coffe" surprisingly often means Nescafé.
In a region where money is scarce and time and coffe beans are plenty, people drink Nescafé. It makes your head spin.
Ah... so you can lead the coarse to water, (Score:3, Funny)
Shame on you MS!
Typical Slashdot Sensationalism (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh please, how naive is that. (Score:4, Insightful)
The initial barrier of entry is the cost of the infrastructure, and nowadays the software (the commercial one I mean) is perhaps the biggest cost of having a working computer.
This is even more true if you consider that you can have preety cutting edge machines from a computational point of view in old hardware with the lastest FLOSS software.
Assuming the cost of training is the same no matter what software you use (I will ignore the wide availability of training, help and advice in the FLOSS world) then at the end all goes down to cost.
If you use second hand hardware (the most likely situation if you are trying to introduce computing in a poor country) then you are only faced with the cost of which software to use.
And this makes it a no brainer, you can get a FLOSS OS, with any kind of application you can think of for $0. Windows (or MacOS, when it shows up for generic x86 boxes) will set you a substantial amount of money.
When you realize that very often the price of one license of WIndows is the equivalent to one month salary of a trianed person in some countries, then the argument of this individual (and by extension yours) collapses like a house of cards.
Why should anybody spend money in commercial software when that money could be better spent in paying for the training you will obviously need?
To say that this guy's argument is stupid, self serving and contradictory in the view of the existence of FLOSS is an obious understament.
Self Determination (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft still doesn't get free software. Free software isn't about the cost, it's about the freedom. Consequently the MS rep is right when he says costs isn't the major issue, and his arguments about expertise strengthen the position of free software.
Free software gives Africans a better chance of learning how to use software and build a local industry modifying it.
I bet the next generation of African mechanics already spend their days under the bonnet of any car they can get access to. These are the people who will own small mechanics business in tomorrow's Africa. Tough luck if your car is a Microsoft car with the bonnet welded shut.
Microsoft's aim is to keep Africa dependent on Microsoft.
Some people are using the 'give them food before computers' argument. The philosophy behind free software is larger than computer software. It's about the abilityto determine your own course in life. I'm sure Monsanto is using the same arguments as Microsoft about the sterile seed they sell.
The easiest way to get free software to Africa (Score:4, Funny)
I call bullsh*t. (Score:3, Insightful)
My soon to be wife has lived for years in Africa as a exchange student through her church - West africa, not the tourist spots that get cleaned up to look better so they attrract more tourist money - so I know a little something about this.
Water is a rare resource there. If you get bitten by a bug for example, you wipe the bloody sore on the wall to scratch it because if you use your water for the day on it, you dont drink.
A person can live - barely - on about 2 bucks american a day for food and basic needs - and no that does not include toothbrushes or soap as they are luxuries - in Africa if they have a home; Unfortunately most dont even have 50 cents american per day.
It is a fact that electricity is only available in the larger cities if at all, and without electricity you are not going to be able to boot a computer much less use any software on it open source or not. The African people are cunning in the way that they can usually do what it takes to survive - survival of the fittest being a cruel but true thing in the extreme land and political environment and all the civil wars they have gone through - but they can not use electronics without electricity.
But they do know how to use the tools when they are available. The biggest thing over there - and the one thing every African knows how to use - is the windows based computers at the internet cafes in the larger cities. People walk days just to use them. Saying that they do not have the knowledge to use computers is not only an insult to them and a racist comment in itself, but completely goes against the standing facts that keep Spam filters against Nigerian - yes Nigeria is in Africa - Spam from hitting your inbox.
My fiance has personaly known some of these africans and talked to them, and do you really think that nigerians would be sending you spam and trying to get money from you if they where not so damn poor with no other option? Sure once it works it may just be greed that keeps them going, but in such a sorry state of existance and in such a poor country if it works and keeps them fed and clothed, what else are they going to do to survive? I am not saying spam is good - its bad and the people who send it have very low to non-existant ethics - but what other choice do some of these people have thanks to companies like microsoft not even wanting to try to help africa be developed enough to be self supporting?
Microsoft is just splitting hairs and insulting people, as well as lying through there fscking teeth. They have the power to make not only Africa as a developing natuion but the entire world a better place, and they will not do it because they are too damn greedy to think of anybody else but there own profit margins. The funny thing is they say they are against spam, so you would think they would want to help develop africa - and nigeria - enough to allow the spammers alone to have other options. That in itself would make the world a better place.
Re:I call bullsh*t. (Score:3, Insightful)
It's language like that that keeps people ignorant. You could have informed everyone reading about how things are in a specific west African country. At the very least they might have learned t
Re:I call bullsh*t. (Score:3, Insightful)
Unlike every other commercial company?
I spend a lot of time in Africa (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm against pirating software in general, but with attitudes like this, well let's just say Africans are ok pirating MS software in my book.
Down in Africa those folks are just doing the best they can with what they got. This attitude that "if they can't pay they don't deserve" is mind boggling. MS could do a lot of good down there, but no.
On the plus side, I'm seeing lots more banks deploying Open Office on the desktop with Liunx and MySQL on the Enterprise side. This whole controversy will be rendered academic in perhaps ten years.
Who the hell would accept MS crapware when they've spent the formative years on their careers using Open Source?
Piracy still isn't ok (Score:3, Interesting)
Look at the car industry for a comparison. Not everyone drives a Ferrari. Precisely _because_ not everyone can afford a Ferrari, and they can't just pirate one, some will go buy a cheaper Ford Fiesta instead.
Or, and here's the most important part: in some of those countries they'll go buy a locally produced car, creating employment and taxes in their own economy. E.g., if a citizen of Russia can't afford a Ferrari, maybe maybe they can afford a locally produ
Windows versus GNU/Linux in Africa - an analogy (Score:5, Interesting)
Danny.
This is a blatant logical fallacy (Score:4, Insightful)
Aquiring the expertise to know how to use computers is a necessary prerequisite to being able to benefit from computers and the software that they run, regardless of whether that software is free or proprietary. Microsoft is correct in stating that these people would not be able to benefit from free software at this point, but then they're no better equipped to be able to benefit from anything Microsoft has to offer either.
Listening to Microsoft when it comes to computer software is like asking Ford or GM what brand of car you should buy.
Lee
I am an African (Score:3, Interesting)
Microsoft getting back to its old self... (Score:3, Insightful)
Just like the cost of food isn't important to those who want to grow up healthy?
even though he admitted that the average annual salary in the West African country is only $160 (£91).
Yes, I'm sure that Africans wouldn't mind starving for a few years, so that they can buy Microsoft's software - which I'm sure Microsoft would offer at a discount rate for the first year.
"It's not about the cost of the software, it's about how you take your expertise to people. We are sharing our expertise, particularly with governments in emerging markets. Cost is not the barrier here -- expertise is," said Holloway.
Most commendable. My hat is off to Microsoft, having ripped off those who can afford its software, it spends some of the excess on locking poor people into its proprietary solutions.
If Microsoft was to give everybody in Africa free PCs running the latest version of Windows, what would they do when they had to upgrade? And, if they couldn't afford to upgrade, what good would their expertise in an old, out-dated operating system do?
Microsoft seems to be getting right back into 'Linux is a cancer!' mode with this textual outburst of desperation.
The thing is, many Africans have time to spend learning how to use software, but they don't have money to spend buying software. Using Open Source seems the better option, especially when there is a need to keep up with upgrades.
Children (Score:4, Interesting)
When a child is born it understands no language yet learns one. Windows isn't easy for a complete beginner either, inexperienced computer users ask millions of questions about Windows every day.
Please RTFA, article is about lack of expertise (Score:5, Interesting)
So there's some interesting stuff worth discussing if people bother to RTFA before they post "Bill Gates doesn't care about African people" or whatever all the junk was I had to wade through while I was trying to spend my last mod point.
Re:Please RTFA, article is about lack of expertise (Score:3, Insightful)
But here's the difference: giving third-world countries Microsoft is "giving them a fish" because it is closed. Giving third-world countries Free alternatives is "teaching them to fish", because it's Open. Just as it initially costs more to teach fishing than to give away fish, s
Re:Please RTFA, article is about lack of expertise (Score:3, Interesting)
At the time there was a lot of interest in Linux from the bank staff and some people I met from Africom - a
Bill Gates doesn't care about African people (Score:3, Insightful)
"article is about lack of expertise"
The article is pointless. Building a countries infrastructure on proprietary software is dumb enough. Building a country on another countries proprietary software is national suicide. Witness just about the entire worlds realization of this as they invest heavily in Linux localization
The same old free/Free argument (Score:3, Insightful)
While Afrricans (Score:3, Insightful)
There are few reasons to assume if they had access to technical documentation they couldn't develop their own manufacturing and help themselves, even more disturbing is the seeming lack of outside trade, Africa has oil and precious stones which are sold through other countries who pay them a pitance, admittedly the Africans didn't have enough capiltal to start their own industry but if they have access to the technical information at least they'd have an idea of the complexities involved.
Free informtation would be good for progress around the world, it would challenge companies to be original year over year, but the effects on developing countries would me increadible.
Strange Logic (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft's Got it all wrong! (Score:5, Interesting)
To start, I’m African, in fact a Nigerian. To say Africa does not need open source or lacks the necessary expertise to support opensource or other licensed platforms, is a total MISCONCEPTION. I'm also disappointed @ Gerald Ilukwe, the general manager of Microsoft Nigeria claims. I have worked as a freelancer programer both in the grassroots and the corporate level, and I can tell all not to be misconstrued by the "poverty commercials".
There are people, i mean professionals, who can match up. So much development has been happening here in Nigeria, Much of the business processes these days are computer streamlined and backup by either local and Open source software.
Almost all web applications used in Nigeria are developed locally. Almost all customised software, including Opensourced is developed locally, so what’s Microsoft’s problem?
Africans are survivors. African can survive and would do anything to survive. We do not have Natural Disasters like the west; all we have is Human disasters. The Govts have been criminal these years past, leaving Africa impoverished.
The poverty level is high, but that’s stale news. Most Nigerians have put that (poverty issue) behind them, in a bid move on. So they result to different mediums like software piracy (Apart from Spam and scam mailing, Nigeria is a den of software piracy), spamming using advance-fee fraud and so and so.
Would you say that someone who knows how to hack and crack a piece of software with a long list, and someone who goes to buy this software knowing its use the implications and how to bypass it, IT Illiterate?
Or would you categorise some one who knows how to cook-up a good story, sniff out a looooooooong email list and start a criminal spamming business as illiterate?
In the wake of the millennium, SPAM was king here in Nigeria (This has dropped drastically, as govt is out with different schemes as a crackdown). In those days when there where no Law enforcements, you would see young people, aged 16, 17, in their teens sending spam mails in cybercafés. a lot of them.
I am not saying these criminal activities are justifiable, but does Microsoft expect Nigerians to buy software with their entire monthly salary? Microsoft claims to be supportive through NEPAD; I’m sorry, i disagree! Microsoft Makes a lot of money from direct sales to corporate office in Nigeria (NO WONDER THEY ONLY OPENED A SALES OFFICE IN NIGERIA NOT EVEN ONE FOR SUPPORT), they also have anti-piracy networks and other surveillance systems. They make Money from their sale of software! A lot of it. So for them its all about more sales!
The grassroots are not affected in anyway! How many people can claim they benefited from Microsoft generous offers? Rather people scramble for pirated windows software that they can afford, scramble for junk computers and IT components gladly donated by the west at a price or buy IT components all brought in from Taiwan. Let microsuck make these softwares affordable and people would buy!Let them get involved in grassroots support, projects, and people would appreciate them.
The openSource Cloud here is enormous for example close to 80% of cybercafes in Nigeria use LINUX boxes for their routers. If Microsoft says they want to keep their pitch, let them go ahead, the open source is an alternative with a lot of local support.
I AM AFRICAN (Score:5, Informative)
South Africa is the original home of Mark Shuttleworth and his foundation Ubuntu has an ongoing task in South Africa to teach and install Ubuntu in schools (Hint to Microsoft: It's one fuck of a lot cheaper than a Windows solution). I chat regularly with my mom down there who has a Windows PC. South Africa's biggest problem is a monopoly telecommunication company that refuses to allow competition or lower prices on internet access, thus ensuring some of the highest access prices in the world.
However, if you go accross the border to the north, in Zimbabwe, which is in total financial ruin with an autocratic president who hates whites and the blames everyone but himself for the crap that is going on there, you'll find an infrastructure that was similarly built up by the original white minority government, but one that has almost no new investment since Mugabe came to power ensuring that growth in the IT sector there is non existent.
And that is the case all over Africa, you have some countries which have fairly decent political systems, such as South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, etc and you have others which are either run by despotic tyrants, plagued by tribal warfare or thoroughly corrupt or a mixture of these.
In those countries where there is a semi decent system, the education is usually quite good. In those which are chaotic the people are lucky if they can read or write and those who do know the internet, know it usually from an internet cafe.
Linux has advantages due to its flexibility and low price. Claiming that teaching people Microsoft is better because there are more Microsoft trained people is only true if there really are trained Microsoft people around. Usually, the level of trained Microsoft people doesn't reach the level of even an MCSE, since we all know what an MCSE POS costs, so that advantage is null. Training people from scratch with Linux is in my opinion better since a basic grasp of Linux will enable someone to manage in extremely difficult circumstances where hardware and other constraints would make it extremely difficult to keep a system running with Windows.
Expertise: the factor that made MS-DOS (Score:4, Informative)
That's why Bill Gates' recognized expertise, formal training, and extensive hands-on experience with the Altair the critical factor that made his implementation of BASIC such a success.
In the same way, his vast experience with OS development was the critical factor to IBM selecting him to produce MS-DOS 1.0 as the OS for the IBM PC.
And that's just how it happened. Bill Gates says so, so it must be true.
[insert loud, long raspberry here]
Africa's not as it seems (Score:4, Insightful)
You only have to look at some of our achievements to see how misled the average westener is. Ask yourself these questions: Who was the *second* space tourist (and the first to perform actual useful scientific experiments for the kids in Africa)? Who developed the safest nuclear reactor (the pepple-bed reactor) in the world? Who pioneered and actively uses a process to generate fuel for card from coal? Who has developed the technology to create the deepest mines in the world? These are but a few of the many things coming out of Africa.
Africa has the most beautiful landscapes in the world, not to mention rich vistas of animal life. We receive 1000's of tourists that come to see real african elephants, lions, rhinoceros, etc. The western world has to come here for that experience.
Africa has many well-established, modern cellular networks that operate on a single standard (the GSM standard) in just about all the african countries. South Africa alone has 43 million people of which more than 20 million have cellphones. Does this sound like the "starving kids" picture you get fed by the media every day?
Countries like South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, Uganda have stable and growing economies. There are sore thumbs to the picture, but they remain thumbs, and they will be sorted out by the rest of the body that is Africa. If the west would stop meddling in African affairs, the corruption level would be a lot lower, since there wouldn't be any bribary money to throw around.
More on topic: if Microsoft thinks that Africans don't know how to operate OSs and software, they (MS) have another thing coming. If they don't want to market and make money here, there will be 100's of millions of Africans growing up with Linux, learning to rather work with Linux (or any other manufacturer that bothers to market their stuff here). I agree with another poster in the thread.. MS's assumption is simply racist.
Africa is certainly not utopia, but it's not nearly as backwater as people are led to believe either. Let's rather say it has healthy diversity :-)
Re:Gates =! visionary (Score:3, Insightful)
"640K ought to be enough for everyone" is attributed to him but likely an urban legend.
But "Internet is just a passing fancy" was him.
Re:Linux (Score:3, Interesting)
So yes, in some cases Linux can cure hunger.
Re:Linux (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What does Africa Need? (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe because of the aid we're giving to them:
"For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!" [spiegel.de]
Re:What does Africa Need? (Score:5, Informative)
Colonialism ended less than half a century ago; it takes a lot longer to develop even under ideal conditions.
And conditions are hardly ideal: Africa's most natural exports are heavily disadvantaged by Western subsidies, and economic exploitation of Africa and propping up of undemocratic regimes in Africa by powerful nations continues to this day. Even our so-called economic aid is usually tied to specific purchases from the donor nations, so it isn't very effective, and what isn't tied up that way disappears in corrupt regimes, usually with knowledge of the Western donors.
Re:What does Africa Need? (Score:5, Insightful)
Ethiopia was a colony for only 7 years (1936-1943 under Italy).
Maybe, just maybe, over 60 years after that 7-year period it's time to stop waiting for handouts and start to solve the problems themselves.
Just look at China: It was much worse off than many African nations after the war (and the civil-war that followed) and the Japanese were also much more brutal. But did China wait for handouts? No. They tried to do it themselves and failed first (Mao's big leap forward has made matters even worse) but they learned from their mistakes, got the population under control and exactly those regions that were "colonized" by Japan over 60 years ago are now the most wealthy and industrialized.
Similar stories can be told for Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore.
All those nations built up an industry almost from scratch in less than 20 years and a very healthy economy in less than 40 years. Actually Japan, Germany and to a lesser extent France and Italy were also almost completely destroyed after the war and also were able to built up an adequate industry in less than 20 years. (Athough the apologists will say that Western Europe and Japan had the know-how, that isn't true for Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan and coastal China: All these countries were mostly agrarian 50-60 years ago)
So your claim that it takes longer than half a century is just plain wrong. It takes one human generation to develop an industry (like in today's China) and 2 generations to generate wealth and luxury similar to western standards (like in Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea and Japan today).
Re:What does Africa Need? (Score:3, Insightful)
Why don't they g
Re:What does Africa Need? (Score:4, Insightful)
When the United States industrialized, we did it on our own. Even though all the major industries were owned by robber barons, at least they were American robber barons. The products and the profits stayed here.
So now we have all these little African countries trying to have their own industrial revolutions. But instead of enriching themselves, Africans are working in factories owned by Asians, making products that will be shipped off to the United States. That's why they can't "bootstrap."
Re:Badly constructed long-term strategy ? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:We all need Free Software (Score:4, Insightful)