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

[John Thng]

On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 9:30 AM, Chen Xiangpeng <xp at xp.sg> wrote:

> 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
>
>

Ya, it's school feeding the proprietary industry and industry got enough
graduates to do the proprietary and cycle goes round and round.

To break the cycle, either one will need to change. Changing the industry,
or changing the school system. It's better if school dual train people in
proprietary and open source stuff. And then industries can follow. If
industries change first, practically wise, it will take more years for
schools to follow.

There are many companies that afraid of changing totally. Anyone know the
migration of systems + Linux might cost more than just upgrading to higher
versions of proprietary systems. THe transition phase is much complex. So it
will take a great plan to execute. But for new startup or so, it might be
easier, as the migration part is significantly reduced.

I guess the well known rule here says, we must depend and help ourselves.
That's why there's little involvement from government. Free Software
Society, it's hard to set up partly because of this, secondly, we must
change the "culture".

And for linux supporting companies maybe like Dell, IBM, and others, it's
better to convince them to sell a variety of linux systems here. Chicken and
egg question, no promotion of linux systems, no one knows, no one knows, no
promotion of linux systems. That's the cycle. To break like what I say,
"culture".

Certain FOSS is technically superior, but it depends. There are some
applications that are not. And people will go to debate over the use of
their pirated applications over FOSS.

And the campaign is not so good. The best thing here to implement is what. I
guess most of them know. It is fine, fine, Fine, that's what Singaporeans
are afraid. Like Fine $5000k caught for downloading and using pirated
software at home. It will certainly make people find alternative. And in
return, more people might go look for FOSS. As we all know a lot of people
are using pirated software. In schools, if schools didn't feed them, they
will try to get those software illegally most of the time, like ms
office/photoshop. That's the culture. As for work, proprietary companies
might have provide solutions to use on their laptops so they can carry home
if not, they bought the Student editions of Office, actually, it's breaking
the Terms of Agreement to use work on Student editions of MS Office.

I don't recommend showing Compiz Fusion, it's cool, fun. But it's not
lasting to keep people on Linux or so. Many don't like history.

Currently I think all have know, Ubuntu might not be so nice looking as
compared to other distro. So you compare Ubuntu theme and vista theme, you
will know. If necessary, I show other distro rather than Ubuntu.

Total switching is not impossible but we need a concrete plan.
Step 1: Ask people to use Cross-platform Open Source Apps, (Transition of
data and the asking people to switch is quite difficult)
Step 2: Once 90% or more Applications on their computers they are using are
Open Source Cross-platform application, we can start asking them to switch
to linux.
Step 3: Hardware, we must educated also. And also appeal to non windows
gamers first.

This is on the social level.
The best is industries and schools adopt constantly, and more people will
know. Like companies use OpenOffice.org, and at home if they bring work
home, also OpenOffice.org. In Schools also, else they use M$ Office, will
look different.

Regards
John
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-sg/attachments/20080813/786065e8/attachment.html>