More Countries Are Blocking US Tech

More countries are working on technologies developed at home to lessen US control over their IT infrastructure. While this is good for local businesses, it is not good for Silicon Valley revenue.

One example is a shift in Europe away from Windows to Linux. While there is a significant learning curve and you will have to use different apps, once that learning curve is over you have a lot more independence.

South Korea is not approving Google’s request to export local map data for security reasons. Google wants high-res maps and Korea is saying not so fast. This is a security thing. The want Google to hide location data and conceal images of the country’s security facilities. They are not yet satisfied that Google can or will comply.

In India there is a local competitor to Google Maps called Mappis. Mappis is, they claim, privacy oriented. This is something that Google certainly could, but just as certainly won’t, claim. Not even a little bit.

Countries not friendly to the US have already switched away from Windows. Examples are Cuba and Venezuela. That also reduces IT cost for them.

Open source (free) software is actually popular across the globe, but in the US, Windows has a stranglehold in the end user computer. But even in the US, a large percentage of those servers that you get to from your browser are already running open source software. See the picture below.

Credit: Cybernews and Ars Technica

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