Act local, think global

There has been a discussion in Cooker mailing list about package splitting, size of downloads, and such. Someone post a comment that made me sad. I’ll paste the comment and my reply, and leave it as a message to everybody that cares.

> I don’t know many people who still have do not have a fast internet
> connection.

According to recent estimatives, only 12% of the active internet home
users in Brazil has some kind of broadband access. Also, Brazil holds
50% of the active internet access population in South America, and 32%
compared to all Latin America (South + Central). However, it’s estimated
that 2005 will face an increase of 90% in the number of broadband users.

Since the latest acquisition of Conectiva, any Mandriva initiative
should think in a more general way, not concentrating the thoughts on
European or North American markets only. I think the current desire is
to spread the product/company to new markets (specially old markets held
by Conectiva), and knowing about it’s particularities is essential.

As an old said I learn in school, “act local, think global”.