[ Thanks to Charles Spencer for this
link. ]
“Much has been made of the argument in Open Source circles about
the benefits that Open Source offers developing countries, as
opposed to expensive or pirated versions of Microsoft. Some of the
more common arguments run, contra-Microsoft, that the expensive and
proprietary software that runs on Windows is holding back the
developing world. Most imply, directly or indirectly, that somehow
Microsoft is haggling with poverty. That is, school kids in China,
Pakistan, and Guatemala are being denied access to modern education
and technology via the proprietary licensing schemes of MS and the
Software that runs on it. So it might be. However, what seems to
escape such poverty calculations is the true impact of network
security and viruses on developing countries and the impact on the
World in general. Specifically, the impact that computer security
has on development when networks are based on pirated, outdated, or
generally insecure software. The largest and most obvious case
would be China…”