Ubuntu & the underdeveloped world

[Shango Oluwa]

On Thu, 2004-12-16 at 15:34 -0500, jakeslife wrote:
> I personally do not see what a type of government has anything to do
> with using open source software.
> 
> -- 
> jakeslife
> 

Well, jakeslife, a government's ideology informs its values and position
on all issues pertaining to the lives of its citizens, the interests of
other nations and the issue of development - future directions and
endevours. There is a lot to say about that - government type and
ideology, you know?, but that does not belong on this list, so, to
answer your question:

Open Source Software is much more than free software. It represents a
conglomeration of hundreds of tools and command scripts that had been
created and published under the GNU General Public License. This license
has tenets and presumptions that assume and claim certain rights and
freedoms (and also renounces others) - so we're dealing with ideology
again - the Open Source Software and GNU Foundation ideology and
philosophy - which is surprisingly similar to the concept of ubuntu that
my grandmother taught me as a child.

The values and liberties that underpin GNU/Linux form the bedrock on
which UbuntuLinux is built. This is no secret and never was. So, where a
government implements policies of education, such as literacy campaigns
(Venezuela, Burkina Faso) or life-long adult learning (Cuba) their
ideology and economic policies will influence their choice of partners.
For instance, various Southern African governments choose to partner
with the Open Source Software community because they share the same
values. Mark Shuttleworth's foundation is putting PC's running
UbuntuLinux in schools in support of those education campaigns in the
region. Common values.

But where a government's ideology is expansionist and exploitative -
then you find that the GNU GPL becomes a thorn in the side of the big
businesses which influence those types of governments and then the Open
Source Software community and its software and its beliefs are seen as a
threats and do not get all the funding and support they could have had. 

Yes, different types of government have different attitudes to OSS.
Poorer countries' citizens stand to gain a _lot_ from OSS, GNU/Linux and
- at this moment - from Ubuntu as a tool for learning, communication and
business. When a poor socialist country implements policies that will
rid it of ridiculous Micro$oft license fees and software restrictions in
favour of OSS and its cmmonly held open and free values, then we all
stand to gain. If that country gets harassed and undermined and
sabotaged by a big bully government, then the OSS community takes heed,
because the bully can turn on us too for promoting similar values
through our support of OSS, GNU/Linux and the GPL.

Lastly, has anyone successfully installed Ubuntu on a Dell PowerEdge
4350 ? Sharing your experiences will be appreciated.

Regards,
Shango