(Published on Folha de São Paulo, the most important journal of Brazil)Microsoft criticizes Brazilian government's position about free softwareBRUNO ROMANISPECIAL ENVOY TO REDMONDThe president of Microsoft Latin America, Hernán Rincón, sent word to Brazilian government: "innovation software does not happen in the hands of governments but the private sector."The statement came after he was questioned about the government's position of supporting programs with open source like Linux.In a meeting with journalists from Latin America in Bellevue, Wash., he said this morning: "Governments have to ask: what business is to serve their citizens and develop software? Innovation is at private sector. "According to Rincon, free programs require more work and investment from the government to keep them running and updated - which does not happen when companies take care of that for the government.The executive, however, said that the two models - open source and closed - will continue to coexist.COMPETITIONRincon also needled competition betting on open standards and free of charge, such as Google. "When you do not can compete, you are declaring open. This masks incompetence. "The executive added: "When convenient, the companies say they are open. They use it for your own benefit. "NUMBERSThe executive also presented with numbers optimism about the region.He said six of the last seven years, the region grew - the exception was 2008. And the technology sector had strong participation in it.In recent years, the technology sector in Latin America was, on average, two to three percentage points above the region's growth. In one year, for example, where regional GDP growth was 5%, the technology of information increased from 7% to 8%.Brazil, said Rincon, took a leading role in this process. Microsoft Latin America followed the growth. The executive said his division is the fastest growing of all regional divisions. The company would be three times larger in terms of turnover than it was seven years ago.He said 95% of computers run Windows in Latin America. Apple and Linux had 1.3% from 2% to 3%.