Penguin Not Taking Flight Down Under 294
Bill Bennett writes "New Zealand Reseller News reports that Linux adoption down under is three times lower than North America. From the article: 'Adoption of open source software is slow in the Australasian region according to a report from analyst firm Forrester. Only 18% of the businesses in Australia and New Zealand surveyed for the report were using Linux, while 11% were considering its use. Analyst Sam Higgins says the low rate - three times lower than North America - is because open source is caught between two worlds. He says customers have been conditioned to buy software from vendors and their approved partners.'"
Yeah... but (Score:4, Informative)
Dave
Re:It's called critical mass (Score:5, Informative)
everything's slow here (Score:5, Informative)
I tried to convert my current workgroup from using Photoshop to GIMP, because seriously, we DON'T NEED Photoshop to adjust colour levels and crop images, but I was told that, no, we WILL use Photoshop because all softwares used at work require proper licenses. At which point I simply gave up trying to explain. Same with converting from IE to Firefox, although I have been more successful there, thanks to the unpatched IE flaws and nifty features in Firefox. The boss is still using Avant browser though, not believing me when I told him that the Avant browser is only as secure as IE.
Other trends down under:
Computers using AMD processors are still rare in major IT retailers, see www.ht.com.au and www.csw.com.au. Not so long ago, a colleague was looking at getting a PC and he was convinced that a 3 GHz Celeron must be better than an A64 3000+, since the latter only runs at 1.8/2.0 GHz!
Gadgets that have been out for months or even years overseas sometimes never even make it to Australia. I remember when I had to get a Shuttle XPC from overseas when the nForce2 version came out, because most shops have never even heard of Shuttle or SFF then. Of course, now they are pretty popular... but I am still crossing my fingers and hoping that Nokia 770 will make it down here soon.
Lastly, I think most Australian still don't realise that no WMD were found in Iraq, while the rest don't even realise we participated in the war...
Re:How about internet connections/speeds? (Score:2, Informative)
In regards to your statement that "dialing a local number by landline still costs per call":
My guess is that they are just using a different payment system, as most European countries do.
You do pay for local calls as well, but in every case, only the calling party is charged. (In the case of western Europe, not too much)
Coming to the US, I was surprised by the fact that they force two people to pay for each call and can get away with it.
To me, using the phone in the US seems to be quite costly, compared to other systems, so I would not say that they are "still" charging this fee. (I have to admit I dont know how the billing works in Australia)
Re:It's called critical mass (Score:3, Informative)
More conveniently, Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] has a summary and links.
Re:How about internet connections/speeds? (Score:5, Informative)
The reasons why Australian interwebs access is crap:
1) Telstra controls some part of the connection delivered to >98% of all broadband users, including ones wholesaled from them.
2) Until Ziggy and Alston were kicked out, Telstra was a bloated company.
3) Sol and his Amigos came in with a decent plan to clean the company up and deliver superior services. Unfortunately, they decided to keep those services to their own monopoly. Those plans, excluding a nationwide (proprietary because it involves crap you'd usually only find in america, i.e everything Sprint and Verizon sell in the US) WCDMA 850 network are now on hold because Telstra can't be bothered wholesaling.
4) Keep in mind Telstra's share price is at it's lowest ever and many shareholders are rightfully pissed.
5) The only thing that got broadband going in Australia was the stupid $29.95 200mb 256/64 plans. Due to Telstras wholesale pricing (which they have been smacked for over these exact plans before), ISPs make almost nothing on them.
6)
7) The 'Group of Four', Telstra, Optus/Singtel, MCI and AAPT/Telecom NZ carry most traffic domestically but refuse to let anybody else enter into the arrangement to protect their ailing business. Don't give me this bullshit about MCI etc. having peering policies because even though others do carry more traffic than at least one of the group (apparently Primus does more traffic than AAPT) have been refused entry. Ironically, it was a competition regulator decision which created the 'Group of Four' in the first place and the four have been lobbying to keep it that way ever since.
8)
And yes, Australia is an exclusive M$ shop. Broadband penetration has nothing to do with Linux/OSS usage.
And I am quite happy with my 512/512 DSL for $69.95 per month with Internode thank you very much. While I can only pull 20GB worth down from non-ISP mirrors, I frankly don't give a shit that I'm not leeching pr0n at 100mbps like they do in Sweeden or whatever.
* IMHO CDMA would be decent (consumer choice) it if wasn't used as a consumer lock in tool, a.k.a ESN based authentication. For example, Hutchison (using a license of the Orange brand) runs a CDMA network in a few cities. Outside those cities their phones roam onto Telstra CDMA. Since neither of them will sign up ESN's from each other, loads of Orange CDMA phones are sitting unused, and most likely loads are already in landfill. Similarly, Palm Treo users who reguarly visit the bush can't import a Sprint or Verizon CDMA Treo. End rant. Don't flame me about how CDMA voice quality is superior blah blah blah, because Qualcomm invented it as a lock in tool to appease the mobile industry. Pure and simple.
MOD PARENT UP (Score:2, Informative)
Re:How about internet connections/speeds? (Score:3, Informative)
I agree that the reason Linux hasn't been taken up as here much as overseas is quite likely due to poor internet. Our telephone company is a monopoly. We have broadband speeds here that are almost at dialup speed, most of the plans run at 30kbps. They are also very expensive compared to other countries (e.g. NZ$39.95 for the entry level plan from TeleCrim). Most of the country is on dialup. This means linux downloads are strictly for fanatics who are willing to leave their computers running a download for hours, or even days for those on dialup.
There is a strong Linux community here that and many devoted open source fanatics.
People seem to forget the fact that Linux is (Score:1, Informative)
Linux versions of sofware aren't readily available (Score:2, Informative)
the problem is broadband (Score:2, Informative)
the best consumer plan you can get offers 2Mbit download with 128k upload for US$40 per month with a 10 gig cap.
If you want real broadband at 8Mbits with 2Mbit upload then you'll need to write a cheque for US$616 a month for 10 gig, or US$1645 a month for a 30 gig plan.
When there is only one provider of broadband in the country, businesses can simply not afford to download open source software.