Ask About the Iraqi LUG 375
Yes, there is a Linux Users Group in Iraq. When it was first mentioned on Slashdot it only had two members. It's grown a little since then, as has The Iraqi Linux Group Portal. Adam Davidson, an American reporter in Baghdad who helped start the group, has agreed to answer your questions about Linux in Iraq. Please post only one question per comment. We'll email Adam 10 of the highest-moderated questions, and post his answers verbatim (except for HTML formatting) when he gets them back to us.
Which distro? (Score:4, Interesting)
Wow! (Score:3, Interesting)
Age group? (Score:5, Interesting)
OK, I don't even know what it's in Sweden, but it would be interesting, right?
Computer density in Iraq (Score:5, Interesting)
Whats Iraq really like? (Score:5, Interesting)
We all know that the news only plays the parts that sell (normally the worst parts) of reality, which leaves everyone with a twisted idea of what it is like. So if I was born and raised in Iraq, what would my life really be like?
Encryption (Score:5, Interesting)
How can people outside Iraq help? (Score:5, Interesting)
In the long run... (Score:4, Interesting)
What will the Iraqi government use? (Score:5, Interesting)
Am I correct in assuming that Microsoft is in there big time locking down contracts to rebuild government computing sytems?
Can we help you in some way? (Score:5, Interesting)
How can we help? (Score:4, Interesting)
Domestic vs. Foreign Talent (Score:5, Interesting)
War coverage (Score:5, Interesting)
Would it have improved the way the major news channels "translated" the events ?
The numbers. (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course we all know the fastest way to get network is to get a bunch of linux-geeks together.. Is the next linux beer.. erm.. thee hike going to be in Bagdad?
Mullah density in Iraq (Score:5, Interesting)
Any undertanding at all or just considered foreign and evil?
Legislative issues (Score:5, Interesting)
Given Iraq's clean-slate status:
How can the international community promote the freedom to use information technology for fair and lawful purposes (ie no DRM, free use of strong cryptography)?
Infrastructure (Score:5, Interesting)
So, as somebody who's actually there and actually knows what life is like for a techno-geek in today's Iraq, perhaps you could give us a detailed account about current network infrastructure, how easy or difficult it is to buy computer parts, how much Iraqi people (and Iraqi computer geeks in particular) use Internet technologies to connect to one another (e-mail, blogs, instant messaging, the web, etc.), what cultural attitudes in Iraq concerning the Internet, the global community, and the West, etc.
Most people in the United States (which is where most of the readers of /. come from) know very little about day-to-day life in Iraq. A detailed account would probably be very educational and broadening.
Re:Encryption (Score:2, Interesting)
Piracy? (Score:2, Interesting)
If pirated copies of Windows are still the norm, and hardware/power is so unreliable that uptimes are irrelevant, what remaining advantages does Linux have over Windows?
Wouldn't it be better to promote OpenOffice/Mozilla/open file formats, so that the switch to Linux is easier once the infrastructure is more solid, and once piracy is no longer rampant?
technical expertise? (Score:1, Interesting)
State Of Intellectual Capital (Score:5, Interesting)
How can we help? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Encryption (Score:3, Interesting)
If they are not 100% sure of where your IP is geographically located, they will not allow you to download the code. It happens to me once on a T3 line in Belgium. I was running behind a bunch of proxies, which I guess somehow prevented Sun to know for sure that I was a trusted user in an Allied country. I had to use a slow dial up account with some Belgian ISP to finally be allowed to download the crypto code.
Programming Experience in Iraq (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Iraqi geek girls (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What will the Iraqi government use? (Score:3, Interesting)
I also fear that given the past history of Chalabi and his ilk it is likely that under the table payments will be crucial in getting any contracts from the appointed provisional authority - Chalabi faces a twenty stretch if the Jordanians ever get their hands on him, following his looting of the Petra Bank. Obviously a fit person for the US to select to serve on the provisional authority, I don't think.
Problem is, with those awarding contracts expecting presents in their hot little Swiss bank accounts, Open Source solutions are likely to be way down the list, however much they may save.
It looks to me like the real looting is yet to start - all that oil money is too tempting for Microsoft, or any for-profit enterprise that can milk the country without having to actually risk its own staff, to ignore.
Free operating systems vs. Windows? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm assuming that most Iraqis don't have a computer, and as such there is not a very large Windows marketshare.
Do you think the lower prices of linux will encourage widespread computer usage in Iraq? Do you think maybe people will use linux more than windows, since it's cheaper and can (maybe) get a foothold in the market faster?
Chance to return to old glory? (Score:5, Interesting)
Internet in Iraq (Score:5, Interesting)
Does the Internet help opressed peoples in dictatorial regimes to see the rights and freedoms that their governments deny them, and to see around the official views that are put out through party propaganda machines? Is it our responsibility to help people in nations like China circumvent their government's censorship mechanisms (using systems like the ill-fated SafeWeb) and see what's really going on in the world, much as Voice of America and BBC World Service have been doing on the radio for so many years?
How many people have you spoken to in Iraq who used the Internet in some form under Hussein and what did they think of the content? Impressed? Disgusted? Did the Internet have any influence before or during the war, perhaps persuading people not to resist or fight for the regime?
What uses have you found the for Internet in post-dictatorship Iraq? Communications, fostering democratic thinking?
Does Linux (being free and hence requiring no capital investment) represent the ideal way to get people online in Iraq when money is tight and perhaps better used elsewhere?
IT jobs in Iraq (Score:5, Interesting)
What does Linux give Iraq that Windows does not? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:The numbers. (Score:1, Interesting)
At the college/university level (Score:5, Interesting)
Political angles? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Chance to return to old glory? (Score:5, Interesting)
In about 762 A.D., the Abbasid dynasty took over rule of the vast Muslim world and moved the capital to the newly-founded city of Baghdad. Over the next five centuries, the city would become the world's center of education and culture. This period of glory has become known as the "Golden Age" of Islamic civilization, when scholars of the Muslim world made important contributions in both the sciences and humanities: medicine, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, literature, and more. Under Abbasid rule, Baghdad became a city of museums, hospitals, libraries, and mosques.
Most of the famous Muslim scholars from the 9th to 13th centuries had their educational roots in Baghdad. One of the most famous centers of learning was Bayt al-Hikmah (the House of Wisdom), which attracted scholars from all over the world, from many cultures and religions. Here, teachers and students worked together to translate Greek manuscripts, preserving them for all time. They studied the works of Aristotle, Plato, Hippocrates, Euclid, and Pythagoras. The House of Wisdom was home to, among others, the most famous mathematician of the time: Al-Khawarizmi, the "father" of algebra (which is named after his book "Kitab al-Jabr").
While Europe festered in the Dark Ages, Baghdad was thus at the heart of a vibrant and diverse civilization. It was known as the world's richest and most intellectual city of the time, and was second in size only to Constantinople.
After 500 years of rule, however, the Abbasid dynasty slowly began to lose its vitality and relevance over the vast Muslim world. The reasons were partly natural (vast flooding and fires), and partly human-made (rivalry between Shia and Sunni Muslims, internal security problems).
The city of Baghdad was finally trashed by the Mongols in 1258 A.D., effectively ending the era of the Abbasids. The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers reportedly ran red, with the blood of thousands of scholars (a reported 100,000 of Baghdad's million residents were massacred). Many of the libraries, irrigation canals, and great historical treasures were looted and forever ruined. The city began a long period of decline, and became host to numerous wars and battles that continue to this day.
Re:Wow! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Wow! (Score:2, Interesting)
General (Score:5, Interesting)
What is currently the most popular OS and hardware platform in Iraq, both by numbers and total computing power?
Issues:
* Crypto importing
* Access to Internet to maintain a Unix system
* The ".iq" top level domain
* Who runs the providers?
* Keeping Microsoft out (their own EULA forbids its use in Iraq)
Re:Age group? (Score:2, Interesting)
hopfully will go there sometime soon
Overall (Score:5, Interesting)
How do you think they will be one year (or 5 years) in the future?
In-house, commercial, or hobby? (Score:2, Interesting)
If there is a lot of commercial development, in what areas?
What's the rest of te region doing? (Score:3, Interesting)
Intellectual Property legislation (Score:5, Interesting)
State of the Iraqi network. (Score:5, Interesting)
I.E. is broadband available? Is it mostly dialup etc...
Re:Whats Iraq really like? (Score:5, Interesting)
Nature of your members (Score:3, Interesting)
Is there any optimism that, once the current turmoil settles down, Iraq will be able to grow a stronger technology-based economy?
Best ways to get software? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm probably headed back to Saudia Arabia for a week in February, and I had a heck of a time finding good servers. You never know how much you rely on a fast Internet connection until you spend three days downloading the source for Open Office for your Gentoo-based laptop.
And yes, I know for the future that the binary Open Office package is smaller, just about as fast, and that it doesn't take 30 hours to build on a P3 system.
Re:Which distro? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Age group? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The numbers. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Encryption (Score:4, Interesting)
So we look next door. Instead of a radical Islamic government, we see a secular leader, and we falsly assume that this means Iraq will not be subject to the same volitility as Iran. We also see a leader that is against the new Islamic government in Iran (our new enemy). We obviously underestimated Saddam.
Its not like we sat back and did nothing about his war crimes. We sent Rumsfeld to Iraq in the early 80's to urge Saddam not to use chemical weapons. We voted for almost a half a dozen UN resolutions condemning Iraq for it's chemical weapons use. And the chemical weapons he was using were not American [sipri.se] anyway. Finally it became painfully obvious that we could not trust Saddam, so we started working to disarm him.
Hopefully we can learn from mistakes like this.
Re:GET SOME PRIORITIES! (Score:1, Interesting)
So we should just ignore the possibility of them returning to a normal life? What would you rather we do? Ignore them? or sit at our terminals and have a pity party?