Re: [tdf-discuss] OpenOffice.org articles in Linux Format March 2011

On 13 February 2011 18:22, adept techlists - kazar <techlists@ade.pt> wrote:

> On 2/12/11 2:04 PM, Robert Derman wrote:
>
> > Just so you all know, 4 GB of DDR3 RAM can now be purchased for $36. on
> > the internet.  In historical terms, that is indeed dirt cheap.
>
> and how much would it cost to have that RAM shipped to Ethiopia? and how
> many computers around the globe are still in use that have a max of far less
> ram than 4GB, even less than 1024MB?
>
>  Also a 500 GB hard drive can now be purchased for less than $40., and a
> > DVD burner for less than $20.
> Your ISP is in River Falls, Wisconson, U.S.A. The per capita GDP in the
> U.S.A. according to 2010 CIA World Factbook charts was $47,400 USD. (
> https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html
> )
>
> The per capita GDP in that chart for Ethiopia, for example (there are 15
> countries with lower GDPs) is $1,000. Once you take into account the
> rich/poor divide that is rapidly growing wider in all non-socialized
> countries, the vast majority of Ethiopians live on far less than $1,000 per
> year. Visualize what kind of computer they might have, or might have access
> to in an internet cafe even in Addis Ababa. And if you put yourself in the
> skin of someone living in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe ($400 per-cap GDP), Cambodia
> ($2,000), Kenya ($1,600), India ($3,400)  etc ... you'll see that spending
> $36 on RAM and $40 on a HD and $20 on a burner is truly out of reach for
> most of the world population. (and one must have a fairly recent model of
> computer to take advantage of "cheap" RAM and peripherals, as well)

If you are living on $1 a day, MS Windows is about 2 months pay with no
discretion at the margins. No wonder that software gets copied illegally.
This also demonstrates the myth that this causes the equivalent lost revenue
of $50-$60 for each illegal copy. The fact is that if it was impossible to
copy many of those doing the copying would not afford to buy it so there
would be no additional sales. (I'm not condoning illegal copying of
software, just pointing out some facts about it :-) ) Open Source is
important to inclusion and so is reducing hardware costs as far as possible
and making education and training as low cost and as freely available as
possible.

> kazar
>
>
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