The New York Times has an interesting article on Open Source in Brazil. It talks about a government program to try and get computers into the homes of people who could not afford one, and try to cross the digital divide. This, in itself, is an impressive initiative -- in too many countries this division between the rich and poor is accepted as a reality instead of something that can be fixed. What is more interesting is that they are considering using Open Source software to facilitate these computers.

Walter Bender, of the MIT Media Lab, was quoted as saying:

free software provides a basis for more widespread access, more powerful uses and a much stronger platform for long-term growth and development.
Which gives some credence to the analysis of the OS advocates. Microsoft would like to get into the program by providing a reduced functionality version of their software suite. From their perspective, they want to do this to continue to have a full featured, expensive version of their software package. But, that in fact makes the competition easier, as the Open Source software package is full featured.

While this is not over yet (we can assume that the Gates foundation might be making some critical donations to Brazilian charities in the next little while) it is a huge step for Open Source. I hope that the people of Brazil get a powerful suite of tools in the end.


posted Mar 29, 2005 | permanent link