An open letter to Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox:
Congratulations on your historic victory in the presidential election. About 100 million Mexicans and others who love Mexico are eager for change in your country, and they have high hopes when your new administration takes office in December.
But clearly, one issue of great importance is how to bring Mexico into the "new economy" of the Internet, high tech and global commerce. Mexico has many resources in technology to exploit, but they have been obstructed by weak or bad government policies. You can change this.
Let me offer you some suggestions on how you might start.
First, Mexico's future lies with free, "open source" software like the operating system Linux, and Gnome, another open-source effort to build a Windows-like screen. Gnome itself was developed by a young Mexican programmer, Miguel de Icaza, who is 27 years old. This summer, De Icaza started the Gnome Foundation (http://www.gnome.org) to unify and stabilize the Linux desktop software, and he acquired the support of IBM, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq, among other major U.S. companies. He is a hero to young programmers around the world, and he should be a hero to all Mexicans. You should meet with Miguel de Icaza and get to know him and young people like him. They are the best hope for Mexico.
Obviously, the biggest benefit of free software to Mexico is that it's literally free, and Mexico is a poor country that needs to preserve its capital. Mexico has a new law on software piracy, for example, and your government will need to enforce this law for Mexico to be regarded as a trusted partner in high-tech trade. But if you do enforce the software piracy law effectively, it will result in a massive transfer of pesos to the United States, and principally to Microsoft, the largest victim of software piracy in Mexico.
Alternatively, you could promote the use of free software such as Linux, Gnome and application packages such as Sun Microsystems' StarOffice suite, which are all free. No pesos would leave Mexico and you would get all of the functionality of modern software. Indeed, you'd become part of a trend that is sweeping the computing field in the U.S. IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq are all offering Linux on computers now. IBM is essentially a Linux company these days, an astonishing transformation. Mexico would not lose anything by adopting free software, indeed, it would move to the cutting edge of technology.
