[Reader-list] Asia-Pacific Argues in Favour of Free and Open Source Software

[Kiran Jonnalagadda]

On 05-Sep-05, at 4:13 PM, Sunil Abraham wrote:

> Siem Reap (Cambodia), Sept 3 -- Twenty countries joined a three-day  
> Asia Pacific consultation on Free and Open Source Software, which  
> ended Saturday evening on an optimistic note which saw non- 
> proprietorial software playing an increasingly important role in  
> this talent-rich, resource-poor region.

Dear Sunil,

Isn't the title "Asia-Pacific Argues in Favour of FOSS" a gross  
generalisation, and potentially undermining the efforts of all those  
still working on FOSS adoption? The opening sentence "Twenty  
countries joined..." also appears misleading. From what I can make  
out, the attendees came from twenty different countries. They were  
not representatives of their country as a whole. Only the national  
elected government can claim such representation, and that too only  
if they were elected on a FOSS ticket. Please correct me if I'm  
wrong, but I do not believe this is the case.

Imagine if Microsoft throws a bash, invites people from twenty  
different countries, and issues a press release "Asia-Pacific argues  
in favour of Microsoft Windows, twenty countries joined a three-day  
consultation which ended Saturday evening on an optimistic note which  
saw Microsoft Windows playing an increasingly important role in this  
talent-rich resource-poor region." The FOSS community would be up in  
arms. Cries of "FUD!" would resound across community lists.

So what's stopping Microsoft -- or indeed anyone who has reason to  
fear FOSS -- from crying FUD when a lucrative client uses such  
announcements as justification for moving to FOSS?

In 1999 (98?), the Mexican government announced it was migrating  
schools to Linux over a five year period [1]. 1999 was the year of  
Linux in mainstream media. Everybody was talking about how Linux  
would be the non-entity that would finally topple Microsoft's  
monopoly because for once Microsoft was fighting something that was  
not an organisation, that had no form that could be attacked.  
Mexico's migration was the favourite story. It's two proponents  
became heroes of Linux adoption.

[1] http://www.livingstonmontana.com/access/dan/ 
120linuxinmexicanschools.html

Well, what happened? In 2000, the project folded up silently, having  
failed to convince students to actually use Linux. The proponents  
admitted that they may have been a little too enthusiastic, that  
Linux may have been a little too rough-edged for such a wide rollout  
(sorry, can't find a link to back this up). Nobody noticed this. I,  
for one, didn't even hear about it until as late as 2003. This was  
one of Microsoft's silent victories, one they are happy to retell  
when a large user threatens to quit.

Please, folks, let this not happen again. Hype about adoption is not  
the same thing as adoption. Exercise restraint in your promotion.  
Don't raise people's expectations so high that they come away  
disappointed from the actual experience.

-- 
Kiran Jonnalagadda
http://www.pobox.com/~jace