[Ubuntu-SG] [Bulk] Re: South-East Asian FOSS Collaboration

Wed Aug 13 01:30:08 UTC 2008

I think proprietary software adoption is a vicious cycle.

You train students in school (especially local polytechnics) to use
proprietary software to equip them with "skills" to enable them to find a
job in their respective industry. The reason why such training giving is
that the industry demands them. Why does the industry demand them? It's
probably due to 3 reasons:

1. Proprietary Software is better in that industry.(Think Adobe Photoshop)
2. Strong lobbying by the proprietary software makers. (Microsoft anyone?)
3. Industry is deeply ingrained in use of the proprietary software.

The education syllabus in Singapore is more or less steered by the
industry's requirements. As John mentioned, Singaporeans are a practical
lot. A few years ago, most local companies running IIS switched to Apache
not because of Free Software principles, but due to the fact that IIS
happened to be wacked left, right and center by the Code-Red worm while
Apache is unaffected. For the same reasons, most companies that run Linux
adopted it because of the low cost and relatively higher security than
Windows and not for the Free Software principles. I honestly think that this
isn't going to change anytime soon.

I don't think we need to resort to "catching" people for using pirated
software. There is already enough campaigning done by the IPOS and
government on the issue of Intellectual Property(that's another issue for
another day). In Singapore, getting people to adopt free software is both
easy and difficult at the same time. We're a conformist society, just get
the government to endorse Free Software and we'll be well on our way to
becoming a Free Software society :P It's convincing the government that is
hard.

The model of FOSS development will actually evolve a product to the point
where it's technically and aesthetically superior to proprietary software.
But before that, convincing a pragmatic crowd will be hard.

Having said all that, you can attract people to desktop linux in 2 ways:

1. Appealing to the technical crowd
2. Appealing to the people who like cool and shiny stuff.

I've convinced more people to switch to Linux by showing them compiz fusion
than giving them a nice long lecture on the merits of free software and the
long history of how rms struggled to develop the GNU system till the
appearance of Linus Torvalds with his linux kernel. For this same reason, a
lot of the younger generation are switching to macs. Making Linux a cool and
pretty OS to run (and free, which REALLY appeals to Singaporeans) could be a
direction we can take.

XP

On Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 6:28 PM, John Thng <johnthng83 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 3:41 PM, Maung Myat Thu @ Billy Aung Myint <
> billy at ubuntu.sg> wrote:
>
>>
>> That depends on the institution. If that institution says laptop comes
>> with openoffice and firefox, I have no doubt HP and Toshiba will do
>> that.
>>
>> Yes , I never understand why they have to upgrade the office ... amazing
>> waste of public funds.
>>
>> There are a few competitions .. such as google summer of code. I can't
>> think of local competitions though.
>>
>> Thats why we should start with schools and MOE. No parents here? I sure
>> would like to hear from a parent.
>>
>> That you gotta talk to the govt. We been kissing asses everytime. BSA ,
>> RIAA and so on. Singapore economic depends on stability of govt and
>> people and business. Change is not what govt wants. The same people are
>> doing what they been doing the same things over over 40 years. Why
>> expect any change soon?
>>
>>
> Ya, but currently, they are over-dependent on microsoft office. There might
> be ooxml files that is not the iso ooxml floating around. They should all be
> educated and try not to save in ooxml yet.
>
> I pity those innocent users who saved in the 1000-flawed ooxml format that
> is forced by default nowadays. Too bad there's no policy to warn users
> beforehand before they use it.
>
> And btw, the greatest act is to let those downloading and using pirated
> software be caught, whether it is home user or office user. MP3/Hollywood
> Movies have done that, why not apply it to software. There's lack of these
> law/act ... But I don't think they would do so, since propriety companies
> are controlling the anti-piracy organisation. Doing so will severely damage
> and force people to use legal software, in which they will slowly lose
> popularity.
>
> Ya, google summer of code is programming contest, but I'm not referring to
> these type. I'm referring to those who can use gimp to make the best image
> on the spot competition. Using those open source audio trackers to make the
> best music, using video editing tools to make the nicest looking video.
> It'll appeal to wide range of audience.
>
> For schools, I think they sign up those yearly academic price plan,
> whenever there's new release, they can upgrade the software for free due to
> subscription. What I want to see is they should include OpenOffice.org
> alongside with Microsoft Office at least.
>
> And I forget to tell, most teachers are windows trained. Even though
> there's a group last time that want to bring oss out in education it died
> cos of 0 activity I guess.
> http://groups.google.sg/group/ossie-sg?hl=en
> This is the link. You can check it out. Sometimes we need to unite various
> groups and plan together, else say is one thing, implement is another.
>
> Singaporeans are much practical, the spirit of open source is to convince
> it is better than proprietary. But I prefer the spirit of Free Software,
> which is about sharing. But to normal users, good they use(whether it's
> pirated or not), not good they don't use. Many prefer to use pirated
> photoshop than to ask them use gimp. (that's why I highlight there's a need
> to "catch" these users and give them good warning)
>
> Regards
> John
>
> --
> Ubuntu-SG mailing list
> Ubuntu-SG at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-sg
>
>
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