Free Scientific Software for Developing World?

FlashBoltzmann asks: "I'm a physics student in the US working with a group of physicists, mostly from Africa, who are interested in helping their colleagues on the continent obtain free software for scientific and educational use. Often, many science departments in Africa have little or almost nonexistent funding to purchase new software packages, especially for scientific research or education. Some know of the free software available but say it takes up large amounts of time over often slow internet connections to find and obtain it. I am asking for any recommendations on freeware or open source software, for any operating system, that anyone knows about. We are looking at the Debian version of Linux for a lot of the great software that comes with it but resources for MS Windows would be helpful as well."

"Free educational software of any level is appreciated though we prefer college and graduate level software. Also, field specific software is great, e.g. software for condensed matter physics. Eventually we'll probably combine the software on CDs to be distributed to these scientists. Any help is appreciated especially with programs that perform simulations, mathematical and statistical analysis and plotting, compilers, lab software, etc. The users of the software will most likely be physicists or mathematicians."

Re:A better solution

[mehfu]

Well, I think these countries are in need of scientists. They need people with higher education to develop a more stable economy. Why not instead put all american scientists (with all their funding) in countries with less opportunities to give money to research? This would give a lot of job opportunities as well.

Your idea is probably the most stupid I've seen so far today.

Re:A better solution

[Huge Pi Removal]

I have to disagree with that...

It would be really nice if research could be done, freely, across the world. If everyone leapt into America every time they wanted to {start a business|do some research|etc, etc} then America would be:
1. Overcrowded, and
2. Resented by the rest of the world for "stealing" all its talent.

I don't see that Africa is "cut off" from the rest of the world. They have phone lines to send e-mail down, and geographically Africa's a lot nearer to the rest of us in Europe than America is. Or do you think "cut off" simply means "cut off from America"? And anyway, if no-one else biult up their research facilities, that means all research ends up in America anyway, which is a Bad Thing(tm) (see above paragraph).

Personally I'd love to see these people being helped to do what they want, in a country that they feel is home. I sure as hell'd think twice before going to some states in the US if I were black.

Hope that wasn't an anti-American rant. I know my posts usually are...

Re:Do we want advanced scientists working overseas

[puetzc]

I'm sure that this was thrown out as flame bait, but I will rise to the provocation anyway. bin Laden and other terrorists feed off of frustrantion, hunger and hopelessness. The best way to eliminate support for terrorists is to attack the factors that drive hopeless people to support terrorists for lack a better choices. I am not saying that all terrorists are motivated by economic and social factors, but that enough of their support depends on this to make third world improvements a good way to improve live for everyone.

A recent survey (essay) in the Nov 10-16 Economist (www.economist.com) discusses the surprising spread of technology into third world contries, and of the benefits to the inhabitants in terms of better diet, better governments, and a longer lifespan.

If we can assist and encourage the scientists and leaders in the third world to improve life in all countries, I think that terrorism will slowly whither away.

Connections and Connectivity

[Joe Decker]

A note to FlashBoltzmann (admittedly a bit of a digression)--I notice that you point out that a lot of these folks have slow connections. I suspect that's true in a direct sense, but isn't it true that continental bandwidth to/from Africa is still pretty limited as well? It seems to me that there's a chance that an archive of related software, located on the African contient, might help the downloading time issues and give you a place to put a bunch of related software to make it easier for folks to find....

Re:and the second is

[kilgore_47]

I think we should follow star trek's prime directive; when we encounter less advanced cultures, we should refuse to give them our technology and insist that they discover it on their own.