Activists plug free, open-source software

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Sun, 30 Jan 2005 06:36:46 -0800 (PST)

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Activists plug free, open-source software

 

 

 

 

http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/news/59157.php

 

Activists plug free, open-source software

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil - Activists at a leftist

gathering where Microsoft is viewed as a corporate

bogeyman urged developing nations Saturday to leap

into the information age with free, open-source

software.

 

John Barlow, a lyricist for the Grateful Dead, told a

gathering inside a packed warehouse that poor nations

can't solve their problems unless they stop paying

expensive software licensing fees.

 

Open-source software includes programs that are not

controlled by a single company. The software can be

developed by anyone, with few restrictions. The best

known such software is the Linux operating system,

which can be downloaded free from the Internet.

 

" Already, Brazil spends more in licensing fees on

proprietary software than it spends on hunger, " said

Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier

Foundation, a cyberspace civil-liberties group.

 

The session was one of several at the World Social

Forum, which has drawn tens of thousands of people to

an annual protest against the World Economic Forum, a

gathering of world leaders now under way in Davos,

Switzerland.

 

The activists in Brazil are generally united in their

opposition to what many call unbridled capitalism and

the policies of the Bush administration. They are also

promoting hundreds of causes, ranging from opposition

to genetically modified crops to free distribution of

land to poor farmers.

 

Barlow said Brazil is trying to wean itself from

Microsoft with a campaign to persuade Brazilians to

shift from costly Windows products to applications

that run on Linux.

 

Microsoft contends that open-source software can be

more expensive than Windows programs when service

costs are factored in.

 

All the social forum's 800 computers are running on

open-source software, but the loosely organized event

ran into an embarrassing glitch Saturday when two big

screens betrayed the fact that the computer was

running on Windows, with the operating system's

toolbar visible at the bottom of the screens.