Who Needs Enemies...

As a professional geek, I am always trying to keep my finger on the pulse of technology and technology-related business. Imagine my surprise when I came across the following article in one of my favorite trade mags, ComputerWorld:

Intel, Communist Party Team on Open-source
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Intel Corp. has agreed to help Vietnam's Communist Party move its computers to open-source software. Under a memorandum of understanding, Intel will help the party's Central Committee for Science and Education set up a laboratory called OpenLab for developing and testing open-source technology. Over the next three years, the lab will oversee the installation of open-source software on about 27,000 PC's equipped with Intel processors, the chip maker said....

Sumner Lemon, IDG News Service

Now, I do not consider myself an authority on all things open-source, but it has always been my rough understanding that open-source code is based on the ideals of freedom of thought and free and inclusive work by the community. Now, the community aspect fits the Communist model extremely well, but the idea of free thought has never crossed the mind of a Vietnamese Communist leader, except in those situations where he is looking for a reason to dust off the firing squad. This move by Intel is but one in several recent examples in which American companies are bowing to the human rights' crushing standards of socialist Asia in an attempt to tap another rich marketplace. This particular example set me off a little more than usual because of the dripping irony surrounding the ideals of open-source technology. Let me know what you think...