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

[John Thng]

On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 11:20 AM, Maung Myat Thu @ Billy Aung Myint <
billy at ubuntu.sg> wrote:

>
> For this , you must look from the govt point-of-view too. Why would they
> send message to businesses that Singapore prefer Free stuff over their
> products? Unlike US and China who can do whatever they want with foreign
> companies (mind you , even US govt can't do much with M$) Singapore must
> rely on foreign companies to create jobs. The only exception is the
> cigarette companies for obvious reasons.
>
> As for costs of using M$ software, money must be used somewhere.
> Supporting businesses , be it local or foreign , is a good way to
> attract foreign companies and also encourage local businesses. Singapore
> is , if I am not wrong , one of the best and easiest places to start a
> company. For all the talk about FOSS , we also must remember that if
> every school and institutions and govt ministries uses FOSS , companies
> (who are in business of making money) will think twice about setting up
> a HQ here.
>
> A lot of business , as much as I hate to say it , depends on microsoft.
> Even local company , creative, isn't Linux friendly no matter how much
> complain they get. That says a lot about how businesses think about
> microsoft and FOSS in general. In short , you gotta spend money to make
> money and spending in microsoft , even if its mean getting the children
> becoming a slave to an entity(be it microsoft or cigarette or whatever)
> is worth it from govt/business point-of-view.
>
> So the only way govt will even consider FOSS is that there are more FOSS
> companies in Singapore. Either from overseas or home-grown. Only that
> way we will have enough balls in our court to show the govt that FOSS
> can generate income and also provide jobs for Singaporeans. Remember
> that the first thing people will do when they lose their rice bowl is to
> riot and govt , if they want to stay in power, must not destroy that
> rice bowl. If not who will pay the kind of salaries that they get? :P
>
> Summary is that , we depends on foreign companies for our survival.
> Singapore govt won't move a muscle to show they are unfriendly to any
> business. Look at odex and an australian guy who sues everyone website
> in Singapore for a obvious patent a few month back. Clearly , Singapore
> govt is business friendly and it MUST be business friendly for Singapore
> to survive. All Singapore got are people and nothing more.
>
>
>
Ya, you have a point in paragraph 2.
Ya, if schools, institutions, and govt ministries use FOSS, there will be
more FOSS here due to the effects. As for creative, it does not support the
products of Open Source much in audio too. When will Creative support OGG?
When will Creative support FLAC? It's a leader in audio last time. Without
lossless codec, the sound is not perfect.

The problem is money. M$ is daring to reduce the cost of their package
especially in third world countries. How can they earn? They earn it
elsewhere, training and their partners. So this is one thing that FOSS must
know. If they can reduce so far, can FOSS do so too? That means we might
need to advocate FOSS in other areas.
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