Brazil and Linux (Score 1)

I was present at the World Social Forum in Brazil at the beginning of this year. There I noticed something interesting being done by the worker-party (PT) controlled state of Rio Grande do Sul with linux.

They basically have a whole pro-linux initiative, which mostly came from geeks at the govt's IT department. They are creating a press, to make linux docs available in portuguese, and are shifting as much as possible away from proprietary software to open-source software. Their rhetoric is very public service oriented, making claims of spending money upgrading proprietary licenses from previous adminstrations, money which could have been used to deliver public services. Furthermore, they see open source as a way of achieving development without "northern" control. Their state development bank has begun curtailing loans used for purchasing proprietary software when open source alternatives are available, and give pointers to such alternatives. Its a shame that it takes a dynamic left-wing government to take reasonable steps such as this and i hope more start doing the same.