"Africans can't code yet" - Microsoft

[Deenem]

http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=2432

“Deep dev of the core OS” was not likely to happen in South Africa where students were “still grappling with coding skills”

Since I can't code can I have the rest of the day off please? ;-)

 

[chiskop]

To be fair, the original headline was a leetle less inflammatory.

 

[medicnick83]

Not as if anyone else can do better, I mean, it takes 5/6 HUGE service packs to get their software up to some sort of standard.

Maybe a game company like Blizzard should do Microsoft's OS's.

Probably do a better job than Microsoft themselves.

 

[Kasyx]

Yeah, we'll just pretend Africa had nothing to do with Ubuntu, or OpenBSD, or OpenSSH...

 

[Devill]

Yeah, we'll just pretend Africa had nothing to do with Ubuntu, or OpenBSD, or OpenSSH...

lol

 

[semiautomatix]

I have to agree with the assessment regarding the adoption of OSS. Its a buzz word that the government has adopted without thought or reason as to the benefits.

 

[icyrus]

I have to agree with the assessment regarding the adoption of OSS. Its a buzz word that the government has adopted without thought or reason as to the benefits.

Why do you say that?

 

[dam]

Reading that article just makes me want to go look for that Ubuntu disk I have lying around.....Ah! Found it!! Guess what I will be doing this weekend.

 

[semiautomatix]

Why do you say that?

If you have seen the stockpiles of software lying around government departments you would just know.

Even so, I have dealt with government departments one way or another since I started working. The guys making the policy decisions understand jack about OSS and how it is to be implemented.

There are not enough Open Source technicians and specialists in this country to go around either. Most prefer employment in the private sector as it pays better.

Also the consortium contracted to supply Open Source products to the goverment consist of several large proprietary software companies that are just going to take some money and run. OSS is mostly contrary to their policy, how can they be used for implementation.

Of course, this doesn't entirely bother me as I will just go and install a load of Open Source software, invoice, take the money and leave them wondering what to do since they actually haven't employed a RHCE and only know how to run Windows.