In an article about the kickoff of the Microsoft Certified Partners conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Bill Breslin (head of the IAMCP in the US) discusses the competition Microsoft faces from free software in Latin America:

“It’s a real fight for Microsoft to get on an even keel there against the competition, which is the open source community. There is a long-standing bias toward open source.”

Microsoft understands the challenge they are facing in Latin America but does the free software community understand the challenge we are facing from Microsoft’s multi-million marketing campaign in our backyard? Our ability to coordinate and execute is going to determine how this whole thing turns out.

Although this project has received a lot of publicity already, there is an interesting interview about the $100 laptop with Nicholas Negroponte. Open source values are central — the laptop even comes with a “Show Source” button on the keyboard! Mr Negroponte explains the educational and public benefits that open source contributes here.

Andy Oram has written a summary of the Free Software Forum in Brazil for the O’Reilly Network.

One of the world’s leading advocates of the open source software movement, Brian Behlendorf gave a talk at the Digital Freedom Expo at the University of the Western Cape on Thursday, entitled “Ten things you may not know about open source“.

Bill Gates was recently on a speaking tour of China. During his speech at Peking University, one of the finest in China, a man walked on stage holding a sign that said “free software, open source”. The man was tackled by security and hauled away as Gates looked on in shock.