Open Source in Brazil Computers for Poor (fwd)

From Reuters..... -ac

MIT Backs Open Source in Brazil Computers for Poor

The director of MIT's Media Lab has recommended that Brazil install open-source software on thousands of computers that will be sold to the poor, saying proprietary software programs like ones offered by Microsoft Corp. may be less attractive.

"We advocate using high-quality free software as opposed to scaled-down versions of more costly proprietary software," Walter Bender, director of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in a letter to the Brazilian government obtained by Reuters on Thursday. "Free software is far better on the dimensions of cost, power and quality."

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and several ministers may decide as early as this week whether free software or a simplified version of Microsoft Windows will be installed on computers for a new effort called PC Conectado, or the Connected PC. The effort aims to sell up to 1 million computers, with costs partially subsidized by the government, to lower middle income Brazilians this year.

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http://www.reuters.com/audi/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=7939494