LibrePlanet: Conference/2009/OpenConferenceSchedule/fsla

With Ryan Bagueros and Alex Oliva

Brazil's gov't mandated by presidential decree the use of free software both internally and public facing services (ie: web)

Why Brazil, why did it happen here?

for 500 years Latin America has been under someone's thumb. Brazil has been the US's backyard.

Latin American people chose leader's who didn't agree with DC and those leaders were taken out, this was followed by a series of military dictatorships.

Those dictatorships fell and were replaced by very lefty democracies. Aligned with Cuba's anti-imperialism.

The desire to avoid northern control, dovetails very well with the values and independence inherent in free software.

How divorced should free software be from politics?

Lefty groups seem like a natural place to look for adopters.

Digital Inclusion programs in Brazil reach out to remote parts of the Amazon.

Installation days have been super-successful

GNU/Linux and free software have become "normal" which is very different that what goes on in the US where many people seem to be unaware of anything past windows/mac

Schools running Pentium 1's with Windows 98 in Ohio? Pretty sad compared to what kids in Brazil have on their machines

Technological education? Brazil has computer labs that are free and open to the public, where you could go and learn about the kernel if you wanted to.

Munich?

Sao Paulo has Open Office in the subway

PROCERGS SERPRO CELEPAR BANLO DE BRAZIL CAIXA ECONOMICA

Sovereignity!

Some things that had to be overcome; FUD and strong-arm tactics on the parts of companies like Microsoft, Oracle, etc.