in English via im translator add-on for foxfire :

On Thursday, May 26, 2011

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The first version of Linux appeared in 1991. Linux is an operating system that is provided with a faithful base of followers, users and programmers, but that is still supported far from the commercial competition in personal computers. There Windows leads. Nevertheless, little by little Linux has been gaining space in the field of consumption and one of the regions that is impelling this growth is Latin America.

In accordance with Royal Pingdom - a place known by his statistical compilations on the technological ambience - Cuba, Venezuela and Uruguay occupy the first three world positions in what to the penetration of Linux computers of office it refers.

The numbers of Linux in the world keep on being shallows, especially if it is considered that the country that more uses it is Cuba with 6,33 % of the users of the country. Latin reasons But: for what sound the Latin-American countries those that more Linux uses in the personal computers?

" The realities of Cuba, Venezuela and Uruguay are very dissimilar, and, therefore, it is very difficult to find common reasons that explain the relative success of Linux, although it is possible to detect factors that undoubtedly have influenced his adoption ", says to BBC World Tomás Laurenzo, investigator and Uruguayan engineer.

Laurenzo points at the propulsion that the governments of the above mentioned countries have given to Linux and to adoption of the system on the part of the academy.

As example quotes a Cuban distribution of the operating system, call Nongoes, created by students and that later was adopted and sponsored by the government.

" Speaking about Cuba and Venezuela, it is easy to find points of meeting between an ideology of left side and the use of software of open code, especially when that allows not to use software of an American multinational ", affirms also associate teacher of the Institute of Computation of the University of the Republic in Uruguay.

As for the country of the South Cone, Laurenzo believes that he can explain oneself for " a high level of computer literacy, being - in percentage terms - a big exporter of software ".

Another point that it might be considered - although it is still difficult to measure - is the adoption of the Uruguayan government of the program One Laptop Per Child (A computer for every child, OLPC, for his initials in English).

Perhaps with the exception of Uruguay and Finland, in the rest of ten countries that more Linux uses the key seems to be the fact that the operating system is free and free.

On having adopted software without cost, these countries allow - at least in public offices and schools - that the persons should have access to technology without the need to pay a strong sum of money for licenses.

But the impact of Linux in the personal computers keeps on being a fall. Even in Cuba, the numbers indicate that more than 93 % of the computers does not use the free system.

" It is reasonable to think that the minor costs that the use of Linux can bear, more the adoption of political of government and of education, are factors that can influence in all the countries of the region ", adds the specialist.

But he warns: " Of any form, it is not necessary to lose the perspective, the reasons that support the hegemony of MS Windows keep on being valid, important, and they will be supported in the mediate time ". Beyond the computers Windows keeps on dominating the market of operating systems in the world with more than 90 % of the participation of the market. In countries as the United States or the United Kingdom the scope of Linux is below 1,20 % of use.

Nevertheless, on having translated the lean percentages of users of the operating system to real numbers, it is possible to think that next to 20 million persons they use Linux in his personal computer.

Also, beyond the numbers the operating system usually acquires importance for his community of faithful users who use the software to create technology and programs that later acquire global importance.

In this sense Linux it is seen as a seedbed of ideas.

But also, beyond the world of the personal computers, Linux has a big percentage of the market as for the servants' market (the computers that administer networks and they lodge information) and perhaps even more important, as for the market of cell phones.

The phones Android de Google, for example, use Linux as his operating system. And according to the agency of investigation Gartner, Android of the hand of Linux, will occupy 38,5 % of the market at the end of year.

" Linux is an extremely successful project. With an enormous set of users and a resounding presence at servants' level, netbooks and phones ", says Laurenzo.

" So that Linux achieves a major presence of the market, it is necessary that there arise vectors of desire that break the restored cycle. This desire has to be the sufficiently strong thing like to conquer the expediency or the need to continue the standards of facto ", the Uruguayan investigator concludes.

On 5/30/11, Ricardo Chung ricardo.a.chung@gmail.com wrote:

This article on BBC Spanish version seems to show a trend and I would like to share it on this mailing list.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/noticias/2011/05/110510_1541_linux_latinoamerica_...

I know is in Spanish and I was looking for an English version with no results.

The title says: "The Strength of Linux is in Latin America"

So forgive the language transalation fault.

Regards,

Ricardo Chung | openSUSE Linux Ambassador Panama

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