Venezuela opts for Linux [View All]

Venezuela opts for Linux

Dec 31, 2004

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said this week that the country's public administration will switch to open source software over the next two years, according to reports.

Over the next three months the Ministry of Science and Technology will prepare a plan of how all ministries will migrate to open source software, according to a report by online news service Venezuelanalysis.com. It reported that these plans will then be implemented over the following 24 months.

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Other countries in Latin America are making the same choice. A survey released earlier in December found that 42 percent of Argentine companies are using Linux. Brazil also uses open source: earlier this year the Brazilian state of Parana said that it would be moving 10,000 government employees to an open source email and calendaring application.

Cost is not the only deciding factor for companies in Latin America choosing to adopt open source software. Creating local jobs, the ability to translate the software into local languages and political considerations can also be important. Cuba, for example, cannot legally import Microsoft software from America due to the US trade embargo.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39182957,00.htm