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January 19, 2006
Latin America sees surge in open source revenues
Latin America is a big growth market for open-source software particularly as a number of governments are putting policies in place to encourage the adoption of such models.
Last year, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the country's public administration will switch to open-source software over the next two years. The Brazilian federal government is also hoping to mandate the use of open-source software through a decree that would force government agencies to migrate.
This week a group of 15 Chilean systems integrators that joined forces last year expects to report joint overseas revenues of US$200mn for 2005, according to Heriberto Covarrubias the group's director, and general manager at local firm Switch.
Today HP joined the bandwagon of selling open-source in Latin America. Mandriva, the company formed when the French Linux vendor Mandrakesoft merged with its Brazilian counterpart Conectiva last year, said it will work with HP on sales, support and marketing in "all Latin American territories" including Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.
Posted by admin at January 19, 2006 06:29 PM