[luau] News - Open Source advocates from Peru and Vietnam

[Warren Togami]

Talking with Open Source advocates from Peru and Vietnam  
http://newsforge.com/newsforge/02/10/23/0049208.shtml?tid=19

Last week, at a conference in Washington, D.C., I listened to a speech
by (and had private conversations with) Peruvian Congressman and "Open
Source Hero" Edgar Villanueva and an interesting gentleman from Vietnam
who both told me, in no uncertain terms, why their countries must switch
to Linux and Open Source instead of depending on proprietary software
from foreign companies.

... Even though he is often identified as "doctor," his doctorate is in
jurisprudence. He described himself as "just a lawyer and politician,
not a technical person," and said he first encountered Linux and
Software Libre when he was mayor of a small town and wanted to get some
computers for the local school so that students could learn what they
needed to know to get decent jobs in modern society.

Villanueva's town didn't have money for proprietary operating systems
and software. His (then) IT advisor wanted to do what most people in
Peru and other low-income countries have always done: make illegal
copies of someone else's software. But Villanueva wanted a legal
solution if one was available, and it turned out one was out there:
Linux, courtesy of some local Software Libre advocates he met more or
less by chance. They installed Linux, he tried it, and it worked. Glory
be! Suddenly a school in a small, impoverished town had a few old but
usable computers up and running, and kids learning how to use them,
without breaking any laws -- or spending all of the town's tiny
education budget on computer hardware and software. 

...
(About Vietnam)
 To Professor Chuong, it is an "extremist" stance to mandate the use of
Open Source software by law, while in his eyes a "moderate" stance is
merely to encourage its use. And whether through mandates or
encouragement, he believes Vietnam needs to use Open Source software for
reasons that go beyond money and trade. He said, "We need to increase
our IT security and IT sovereignty," and later added, "We need to reduce
our independence on international vendors." 

(continued in article)