Arieh's Weblog

Technology pervasiveness

After two weeks on vacation in Israel, I am beginning to appreciate several differences in the level of acceptance of technology, as it is used in everyday life, and I can draw some comparisons between my everyday life in the US and what I can see here.

Computers

Everybody I have met has a computer, and uses it for more than the plain internet browsing and email reading/writing. Uses include managing digital picture albums, word processing, interactions with banks, government, etc.

In general, Microsoft is very prevalent. Part of it probably attributable to the issues of localization (hebrew having a different character set, and written right-to-left). Linux is practically unknown in the non-technical space, although I am aware of the efforts of Israeli developers in a variety of open source, linux related projects, as well as in several core-linux companies (Qlusters comes to mind).

A recognition that the computing ecosystem needs to evolve appears to be seeping in, and I have heard/read about projects of migration into Java (J2EE, J2SE) away from Microsoft proprietary technologies.

Internet Connectivity/Broadband Penetration

Practically everybody I have met/visited (friends, relatives) is connected with a broadband connection (cable, DSL). Prices appear to be reasonable. The service (I called the phone company offering DSL) was good, the tech people were very helpful and knowledgeable).

Cellphones

Everybody has a cellphone (and I mean it: kids, elderly people). A lot of competition in this area. Functionality offered at the basic level of services seems to me richer than the one I get back in the US. In general people would give you their mobile phone as their primary number ahead of their non-mobile phone.

Will try to share a bit more in a later note. Let me know if you have had similar experiences.