| Linux Desktop Winning the World |
by Malcolm Dean
DesktopLinux.com contributing editor Malcolm Dean reports on the state of Desktop Linux from the LinuxWorld Expo in San Francisco. With the adoption of Linux occurring at a rapid pace internationally, Dean examines a few projects and theories propelling this trend . . .
Linux Desktop Winning the World
Malcolm Dean
San Francisco, 14 August 2002 -- If doubts about Desktop Domination abound in America, presentations at LinuxWorld today show the rest of the world is cheerfully proceeding to embrace and extend Linux for use in languages and economies too small to otherwise receive much attention. But will Open Source ultimately contribute as much to totalitarian governments as it will to free societies?
In a full day of presentations developed in conjunction with Linux International, 'Linux Around The World' highlights nine projects enhancing Linux for knowledge management, rural banking, and language support. Speakers were quick to defend Open Source as the best way to bring closed societies into full engagement with the world community.
Just as reports arrived that yet another five monks were arrested in Tibet for protesting China's continued occupation and suppression of Tibetan culture, a delegation led by the Beijing Municipal Government Commission for Science and Technology put a glossy, full-color brochure face to its Linux contributions, including the 'Yangfan' project. Funded by the Chinese government, Yangfan is a co-ordinated effort by over 100 software engineers from 18 universities, research institutes, and Linux companies to improve Linux desktop performance and language support. A larger project, 'Qihang', will include an office suite and office automation tools.
Asked if the Open Source community might not unwillingly be contributing to the effectiveness of totalitarian governments around the world, Jon 'Maddog' Hall insisted "you can't enforce morality through technology." Peter Armstrong, founder & Director of OneWorld International, agreed that encouraging engagement through collaboration is the best way to work on Human Rights issues.
OneWorld International has announced The Open Knowledge Network, a P2P file- sharing network of knowledge hubs in local languages designed to share information in a Creative Commons environment. OKN is designed to resist the increasing privatization of knowledge. Now being tested in India and Africa, OKN was proposed by the Digital Opportunity Task Force.
India's TeNet Group is extending X with modules that will provide fonts and display rules for the countries' 18 official languages. Written with Qt, the modules solve the problem of alphabets that can require as many as five Latin character widths per character. Vinay Deshpande, CEO of Encore, reported success using Linux devices aimed at illiterate users in rural Indian communities.
Ximian's Miguel de Icaza says the Linux desktop is making huge gains in regional communities such as Brazil and Hong Kong, which are not well covered in the media. "The North American market is a special case," he told DesktopLinux.com. "It's already saturated. But if you visit these other countries, you see the GNOME desktop everywhere. It's in banking, in the government, everywhere you look."
Copyright © 2002 by Malcolm Dean. Reproduced by DesktopLinux.com with permission.
About the author: Contributing Editor Malcolm Dean is a writer and IT strategist based in Los Angeles.
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