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I wonder, though, if there is a software business in Singapore that is on the same level as Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle, Google, Apple, VMware, etc, as well as the Linux foundation and FSF being present in Singapore. The US may not have the best education system, but I wonder if it is the lax education that has fostered the software industry (as well as engineering, HP, anybody?) in the US.

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We're extremely good at some things but at the expense of everything else. Thus our lives generally aren't very interesting. I'm a pretty smart guy (140± IQ) who dropped out of the system when I was 15 and went through non-systematic but relentless self-education. The learning habits formed in school helped. But I was 'free'. My point is whatever the status quo, there will be a minority that will abandon the system taking along with them only the good parts and then become interesting. So with a bigger population, you get more of such minority which causes Microsofts, Googles and Apples to happen.

While Singapore may not foster a startup culture as it can be found in many parts of the USA, a population of 5 million (with 1/3 immigrants) is certainly hard to compare to 308 million.

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