[Ubuntu-SG] Ubuntu Users in Singapore

Thu Aug 7 01:04:46 UTC 2008

Well, a point to note is that we're VERY FAR off from educating people about
free software principles. Singaporeans are pragmatic; If it's free(as in
beer, not speech) and good, they'll grab it. This is the reason Firefox is
popular; It's free from spyware, can block popups and ads and etc. More
often than not, it's the technical merits of an application that struck a
chord with Singaporeans.  The conformist(not just for software usage)
culture bred into the population is deeply ingrained and will need years to
correct.

I believe the domination of FOSS will come when we reach a certain critical
mass for adoption. I think even Firefox has yet to reach that mass. Though
our ultimate goal seems so far away, I don't think it has deterred anyone of
us from trying to push the general population towards the goal right? :)

Well, this debate has been going on forever, I do vaguely remember
discussing it with John the first time I met him :P

On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 7:08 AM, Muhammad Heidir <dave33bravo at yahoo.com.sg>wrote:

>  On Thu, 2008-08-07 at 01:19 +0800, John Thng wrote:
> Mozilla Firefox is paving the way, but I noticed that during the Get
> Firefox campaign when version 3.0 was released, I noticed that downloads
> from Singapore was about 500 000. I could be wrong. I was hoping the count
> could be higher.
>
> There are blogs that talk about Linux and Open Source Software. But I don't
> think a regular teenage or parent is interested about computing issues, even
> reading about it online, unless it really affects them such as File-Sharing
> prosecutions, or free wireless Internet.
>
> I hope we could come up with a brochure that is friendly enough to be used
> as an introduction and promotion of FOSS.
>
> Talking about piracy, I'm sure if the masses know that FOSS is almost free
> from legal problems, distributable, shareable and free, and much better than
> piracy, slowly they might adopt.
>
> In summary, we can make change 1 step at a time. No need to rush and force
> people to abandon Windows entirely. Make them know, that  OpenOffice is an
> alternative and ODF is a standard format. Firefox is a better browser.
>
> One small step is a giant leap towards FOSS.
>
>
> Best regards,
> supervivid
>
>  On Wed, 2008-08-06 at 17:11 +0800, John Thng wrote:
>
>
>  We all want to see more ubuntu usage. So far I don't think much know how
> to promote even if the laptop do come with ubuntu. If you do have
> suggestion, let's hear about it.
>
> Vista is used widely in sales, because of the branded companies.
>
> And for your question below,
> >> Is there any way for the buyer to be able to choose the operating system
> they want other than Windows?
>
> Because not much people thought of other operating system than windows
> here. I can say, a lot of the people here learn windows from young to work
> and not other os ... And further more they depend a lot of windows software
> ...
>
> As for your last question below,
> >> Are there anyone interested to see a change in the adoption of Open
> Source Software in Singapore?
>
> The correct approach to help people adapt is to ask a lot to use those
> cross-platform open source apps on their windows first, not so extreme
> immediately switch to ubuntu to enjoy it.
>
> As for mindef they have mentioned linux last time but I dun think it's fast
> to deploy. Have to wait at least 2010 or 2012 then I think there's more news
> to it.
>
> Best Regards
> John
>
>
> --
> Ubuntu-SG mailing list
> Ubuntu-SG at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-sg
>
>
>
> Open Source Software, which I believe in Singapore, more and more people
> are supporting in certain area. One known popular Open Source App that here
> is Firefox.
>
> The new ISO Office Open XML format is a forced standard. Even Microsoft
> don't include the ISO OOXML in its current Office suite. We might need to
> use the next version of Office to have ISO OOXML. So the current Office 2007
> OOXML is out of the question for real usage, we need to educate people about
> this "trapped" format. We should encourage people to use ODF instead. And
> also fortunately the next Service Pack for Office 2007 will have ODF
> support.
>
> Surely there will be compatibility issues, as Office 2007 is using the
> thousand flaws OOXML that is not the ISO version. I believe initially you
> thought that the Office 2007 is using the ISO OOXML but it is not, and might
> not with this version.
>
> Besides single vendor, people need to know if their existing data works
> with the new solution. It is not as easy as abc.
>
> There are open source companies here. But if you need sponsors, might need
> proposals. There are blogs around for Linux, for example
> http://planet.anomalistic.org/ , it's just they are not country-wide
> mass-known like those on tv.
>
> Rather than doing stuff independantly, we need concrete plan to execute
> together, else here put a bit, there put a bit, and no one or seldom people
> see.
>
> Oh yes, I know there are people here who use pirated products on computers
> especially home users. And too bad authorities didn't trace for that and
> catch people at home using pirated products. Normally people would compare
> their "pirated" software with Open Source Software that is Free.
>
> And to talk about piracy, it comes to the philosophy part. As Open Source
> Philosophy hardly focus on this as much as Free Software Foundation. We can
> make use of the Freedom rules(which could actually classified proprietary
> stuff as selfish) to promote stuff like Free and Open Source Software(FOSS).
>
> Best Regards
> John
>
>
>
>
> --
> Ubuntu-SG mailing list
> Ubuntu-SG at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-sg
>
>
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