Just FYI: Two weeks ago, the portuguese government announced a new initiative which would give our students and teachers the opportunity to buy computers and have internet access for cheaper prices.
A week ago, another announcement was made, about the "software partner" for the initiative. Guess who is going to "provide" software for the computers? And guess what software are we talking about... "Just" a "little" corporation from Redmond... Having national FLOSS projects, as CaixaMágica[1] and Alinex [2], there is no doubt that if there was given an opportunity to show proposals, these two projects would be able to offer something different, cheaper and plenty of freedom. But our government must have a different idea of what's in our Law... ANSOL[3], our national association for free software, has also published a press release[4] (in portuguese), and this subject is being discussed in (at least) two portuguese free software lists, the ANSOL one [5], and another, about free software in public administration [6]. I've also slashdotted about this in english [7], explaining briefly what is the initiative and what am I afraid of. [1] <http://www.caixamagica.pt/> [2] <http://www.alinex.org/> [3] <http://ansol.org/> [4] <http://blog.softwarelivre.sapo.pt/2007/06/05/que-casamento-e-este/> [5] <http://listas.ansol.org/mailman/listinfo/ansol-geral> [6] <http://www.softwarelivre.citiap.gov.pt:8080/mailman/listinfo/sw_livre> [7] <http://slashdot.org/~nunojsilva/journal/173803/> -- Nuno J. Silva Lisbon, Portugal Homepage: <http://njsg.no.sapo.pt/> & <http://palpatine.hopto.org/> Registered Linux User #402207 - http://counter.li.org Using Claws Mail 2.9.0 Gentoo Base System release 1.12.9 Linux 2.6.17-gentoo-r7 i686 Pentium II (Deschutes) -=-=- HAL 9000: Dave. Put down those Windows disks, Dave. DAVE!
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