[ Thanks to Venantius
Kumar for this link. ]
“There are three standard ways of getting open source
software:
- “Download it from the internet. Typically you need broadband to
do this, since packages like Red Hat run to 1, 2, even 3
Gigabytes.- “Buy the CD’s from a local store.
- “Buy the CD’s over the internet, typically using a credit
card.“In some countries, broadband is widespread, as is the use of
credit card payments over the internet. But in Malaysia, neither of
these are sufficiently in place. There are some local stores that
sell software, but typically they don’t know much about open
source, and may only sell Red Hat, or nothing. In recent months,
raids on pirate software vendors has meant that even legitimate,
legal sale of open source software has also been shut down, since
the anti-piracy enforcement officers don’t have the time or
knowledge to understand the licensing behind each and every
software package on sale.“This leaves the open source community with a big problem. Even
if you decide you want to use open source software, how do you get
it…?”