The South American nation of Venezuela has joined the long list of countries, which is now exploring the possibilities of shifting to open source alternatives discarding the applications from companies like Microsoft, which controls more than 90% of the world’s personal computer market with their Windows Operating System.
The president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez has been well known for his criticism for such big transnational companies and he is now promoting free open-source software as an alternative to market-dominating Microsoft Corp.
The government recently held the Latin American Free Software Installation Fair, which promoted the usage of open-source Linux operating system and other nonproprietary programs over Microsoft’s Windows. This was followed by similar other programs promoted by Linux users in other Latin countries like Argentina and Colombia.
Chavez said in a statement that the previous governments spent more on licensing fees for proprietary software than social programs to fight poverty. However, they are not openly going to criticize Microsoft in particular but would be focusing on the whole alternative software market.