What is Digg?106 Comments
- Dumbledorito, on 10/12/2008, -1/+35Build a man a fire, he's warm for today. Set a man on fire, and he's warm the rest of his life.
- mlwarrior, on 10/12/2008, -0/+23It didn't work.
- cheeseplease, on 10/12/2008, -6/+27Interesting.. I am actually planning to do my master's thesis (in development economics) on this.
- ZippyV, on 10/12/2008, -5/+20FTA: "- The City of Munich migrates its 14,000 desktops to a free Linux distribution.
- Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) deployed Linux in all of its 20,000 retail branches.
- In January 2006, law in Venezuela went into effect, mandating a two year transition to open source in all public agencies.
- The Federal Employment Office of Germany has migrated 13,000 public workstations to OpenSuse."
How does that help reduce poverty? - Technopundit, on 10/12/2008, -3/+18So - I'm gathering Linux computers are edible, like Jerry Seinfeld's PC??
Adjust your shorts if I'm right... - geneusutwerk, on 10/12/2008, -1/+14Well one could make the argument that this means less tax payer money spent in the IT department. This money could then be redistributed to help with different government programs to reduce poverty or it could just be given as tax breaks. Of course I have no idea if this is what happened.
- svensko, on 10/12/2008, -4/+14Glad you're not bitter...
- marzipanbrown, on 10/12/2008, -0/+10easy:
sudo apt-get remove poverty - Stormwern, on 10/12/2008, -1/+11You couldn't be more wrong Kills. Apart from the value of knowing how to use a computer, it can hold a complete education in any subject. Books cost money, bytes are free.
If we want to transform the third world, education must be first priority after food and water. - diggafrica, on 10/12/2008, -15/+24' Teach a man to use a cheap Linux powered computer and you have given him a lifetime of problems, finding drivers & trying to get things to work '
- theremixtrack, on 10/12/2008, -4/+12you can't eat linux...
...just saying - hamobu, on 10/12/2008, -3/+11Great to see Linux being deployed, but it seems to me that impact is not that great. I think cellphone penetration into poor countries and text messaging are making more of an impact in the lives of the poor.
- andycr512, on 10/12/2008, -0/+8"While cheap for the consumer, can you argue that linux creates more jobs that windows? Windows has generated myriad of jobs from extensions in microsoft office to direct x. Linux, not so much."
Wouldn't they be writing extensions to OpenOffice and OpenGL then? If a company needs it to be done, they aren't going to say, "Open Source community, we need this done and we order you to do it. Get it done by Friday." They are going to hire somebody to do it.
"Also, microsoft does a lot to help poor people by donating to funds that help prevent diseases."
Bill Gates does that, not Microsoft. - Fogell, on 10/12/2008, -4/+12Not to mention Windows Vista cost $199.95 and Mac OS X cost $129 while Linux is free. Consider hundreds of thousands of people in poverty countries using those Operating Systems would cost in total millions of dollars spent, while you could spend $0 for Linux.
- infiniphunk, on 10/12/2008, -1/+9either I missed the sarcasm in your post or you are an idiot.
- ajbl, on 10/12/2008, -0/+8Many companies have been hiring linux developers because it is an adaptable platform. And anywhere where you have computers, there is the market for computer support...
- Mardala, on 10/12/2008, -1/+9I think it has all those already. Most of the driver issues (which, btw are pretty few compared to even 4 years ago) are caused by a company unwilling to a. create a linux driver, or b. allow linux developers to see the source code for building a driver and thus resorting to reverse engineering.
And this is typed on my T61 Thinkpad that has run Ubuntu for over a year and is my primary work computer .
Does it have problems? A few. No show stoppers. But when on occasion I do boot into XP its got a few problems as well - like I have to repair my wireless card when I boot up.
I generally hate OS flaming wars because they are annoying, but people that say things about linux in most cases have never really used it. Any new OS takes time to learn. Apple is supposed to be this incredibly user friendly OS but having not used Apples much I find them annoying.
But the point is Open Source software is a valuable part of the open market. I doubt anyone on digg ever spends a day and doesn't use open source software. Its used in embedded systems to the OS on the server that is hosting digg.com (assuming its not run on windows) to most likely one of your favorite web browsers.
And in the near future Microsoft will drop support of XP and that means a huge expense for any business - new hardware with OEM WIndows 7 or whatever it will be called after Vista. - Chakat, on 10/12/2008, -1/+8This is assuming that you're giving them a pile of computer components and telling them to have fun. However, even in the first world, people buy their computers pre-assembled. Problems with drivers and compatibility issues would be solved by the manufacturer before the end user ever sees the machines.
- nurbsenvi, on 10/12/2008, -6/+13Hi, I am Mugatu I live in Africa and I am 10 years old and very glad to be able to talk to you guys with this free linux computer
although I haven't had anything to eat or drink for the last... well... 2 weeks it's fun to browse websites like Digg. - Dumbledorito, on 10/12/2008, -0/+7Sell the man a share in your fishing company, and he shares the risks and rewards.
Sell the man shares in derivatives from projected profits that your fishing company might or might not get (especially since you sold the boats and outsourced the fishing to a third party who was supposed to get you your first load of fish yesterday but still hasn't shown up) and you've managed to destroy the country. - fuckingusername, on 10/12/2008, -4/+11blah front page
must be dead in Ipodville - inactive, on 10/12/2008, -0/+6sudo apt-get job
- Chakat, on 10/12/2008, -2/+8I disagree. Computers allow for communication. Communication kills poverty faster than almost anything else. Communication allows farmers to communicate with buyers for their crops. Communication allows for education, which means those poor people are no longer dependent on subsistence jobs. Why deny these people a communication tool when they need it the most?
- fuze44, on 10/12/2008, -1/+7Personally, I'm looking forward to software developed by African Bushmen.
- Technopundit, on 10/12/2008, -2/+8Not only should you succeed, but your peers should fail. Spoken like a true Loser.
- linuxpenguin, on 10/12/2008, -1/+6You can't eat money either.
- Nairebis, on 10/12/2008, -1/+6Give a man a fish, and you have fed him for today.
Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.
Sell the man a fish, and you have created an ever rising tide of civilization. - DreadKnight, on 10/12/2008, -0/+5I started making ***** loads of money this year by just using open source software.
- mrsteveman1, on 10/12/2008, -0/+5Skills are always marketable, if i have the skills to work on a Linux server, or the skills to work on linux based home machines, i will always be able to find a job. Same is true for Windows or any other in-demand platform.
The only issue is, is there going to be a financial incentive for the Linux platform to push forward rapidly for home use? There is financial incentive for, for example, Apple to rapidly develop their OS, and now that Microsoft has competition they are going to be trying to keep up, because both are motivated by money to develop the software itself. It isn't clear that the same sort of thing will happen with Linux, where all the financial motivation sort of dances around the edges, supporting it, packaging it, talking about it, etc. The are of course some distros that directly develop and sell Linux distros for home use but they aren't GPL'd entirely, so i'm not sure if things will continue that way or not. - jhshukla, on 10/12/2008, -1/+6I hope that no one / nothing takes over the world ever. (1) Open protocols/Specs and (2) Do whatever you like with you hardware. I don't care if it is MS OS, some flavor of linux, or some apple OS on your machine.
- Licurgo, on 10/12/2008, -0/+5the poor people in the third world just get a pirate copy of windows xp.
and yes cheap tecnology can solve hunger, for instance, this computer teach me english, how to make chlorine bombs,how to mod xboxes, how scam other people, just watching "the real hustle" videos on youtube - sspirit, on 10/12/2008, -1/+6the initial cost of the software can still be reduced significantly, ok it wont turn the costs to to zero but it will aid it
- BlueSkyfish, on 10/13/2008, -0/+4http://blogs.computerworld.com/new_linux_broadcom_ ...
And the restricted drivers manager automatically finds one for almost every Nvidia card. Now try installing drivers for a Realtek high definition sound card on a fresh XP install and tell me the average Joe can figure that out. - Carlix, on 10/12/2008, -1/+5And why would they need a computer in an environment of poverty and besides, how are they supposed to pay the electricity bills?
- Atomic1fire, on 10/12/2008, -3/+7It can help by reducing licensing costs, and allow the government to just take one copy, and install it on all the computers, with a government mandated technical specification (such as this much memory, this much ram, this graphics card, ect) and design it all to reduce costs, so they can buy everything as needed and as long as they make updates every few years, it all runs fine.
and the quote is in fact give a man a fish, feed him for today, teach a man to fish, and you will feed him for a lifetime - ryan83189, on 10/12/2008, -1/+5http://digg.com/world_news/Homeless_man_dies_after ...
- mahadiga, on 10/13/2008, -0/+4Open source promotes Competition.
Closed source promotes Collusion. - rfdparker2002, on 10/12/2008, -0/+4The OLPCs are designed to create a mesh network, so in other words if one is actually connected to an internet-enabled access point, it can relay it to other in a chain.
- Chakat, on 10/12/2008, -0/+4There are many free electrical sources that work with a lot of these small pcs:
http://www.olpcnews.com/hardware/power_supply/ - Slacker1031, on 10/12/2008, -10/+14I'll try your OS when you stop masturbating the smell of your own *****.
- edmcguirk, on 10/12/2008, -0/+4"Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day.
Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
Terry Pratchett - ZeroOrDie, on 10/12/2008, -1/+5Thats how Bill Gates got hepititus.
- judicar, on 10/12/2008, -0/+4Linux can cure cancer and end poverty, its like Ron Paul and Chuck Norris rolled into one! ... and most people are tired of hearing about all three.
- BradBrown, on 10/12/2008, -1/+5Agreed. One of the worst articles I've seen on Digg, which is why I'm digging it. The author states the title "How Linux Can Help Reduce Poverty," but does nothing to support his argument - I suppose the reader must come up with their own inferences. I'm going back to the MacBook & pro-Obama articles.
- Chakat, on 10/12/2008, -0/+4@zippyv:
Are those organizations that provide support contracts are staffed by robots? The money spent on a support contract isn't money down the drain. - TheWindBlows, on 10/13/2008, -0/+3If an Operating System gets a hold of business's it will trickle down to users. Along with better support for it.
- inactive, on 10/12/2008, -1/+4when will it be until linux can cure my male pattern baldness?
- KloroFormd, on 10/12/2008, -0/+3Agreed.
I use Ubuntu, and Puppy Linux on my flash drive, but I don't support fanboyism. Educating users on alternatives is great and all, but most of these fanatics just make people think Linux users are on an ego trip. - ZippyV, on 10/12/2008, -2/+5Do you really think the governments will download a free distribution and be done with it? They will buy support contracts and it still costs a lot of money.
- inactive, on 10/12/2008, -0/+3how about we get the damn RT61 drivers working on Ubuntu Studio, then we'll talk
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