The powerful appeal of something for nothing (Financial Times)

The powerful appeal of something for nothing (Financial Times)

Posted Mar 29, 2006 23:37 UTC (Wed) by proski (subscriber, #104)
Parent article: The powerful appeal of something for nothing (Financial Times)

The story overlooks some other obstacles for potential contributors from developing countries:

Bandwidth and connection quality. It's hard to download a multi-CD distribution over the phone line. I don't know of any distribution that would allow installation over dial-up internet while tolerating possible disconnects.

Language. Understanding "Cut" and "Paste" is one thing, understanding real language is another. Ability to write, to argue and to refine patches in mailing lists requires good English. This needs to be learned. Not everyone who is good in computers is good in foreign languages.

Localization. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's hard. If the secretary cannot use free software right away because of a seemingly trivial issue (e.g. incorrect date format), it's likely that non-free software will be used, and the IT support staff will support it during the work hours instead of fixing those issues.

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