Activists at the World Social Forum, where Microsoft is viewed as a corporate bogeyman, urged developing nations yesterday to leap into the information age with free, open-source software.
John Barlow, a lyricist for the Grateful Dead, told a gathering that poor nations can't solve their problems unless they stop paying expensive software-licensing fees.
Open-source software includes programs that are not controlled by a single company. The software can be developed by anyone, with few restrictions. The best known such software is Linux, which can be downloaded free from the Internet.
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