The remarkable southern Indian state of Kerala does it again. It has banned Coke and Pepsi and now is pursuing a policy of preference for Linux over proprietary software, amongst other cities and communities around the world. I’m hankering to visit ‘God’s Own Country’ again (I was there in November, 2002) after all this news. If any Keralites are reading, please do let me know what you think about this, both on or off-blog.
By M SARITA VARMA | Financial Express
Posted online: Saturday, August 26, 2006 at 0025 hours IST
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, AUG 25: After the cola ban, it is now the turn of Microsoft to log out of Kerala. Children in 12,500 high schools in the state, India’s most literate, will not be taught Windows. Instead, instructors are lining up Linux for them. This is because Kerala has chalked out a plan for migrating its high school students to free software platforms in three years.
Although Linux was already blipping on the Kerala IT@School project radar, and the plans of VS Achuthanandan’s government to develop the state as a Foss (free and open software systems) destination has expedited the open software plans.
“Free software guru Richard Stallman’s visit last week had nudged the schools to discard the proprietary software altogether,” state education minister MA Baby told FE. “Stallman has inspired Kerala’s transition to free software on the lines of an exciting model of a Spanish province, which did the same,” the minister said.
The Left Democratic Front government targets implementing an earlier government order that was issued during the previous United Democratic Front regime. The decision was taken in 2004 to push open source systems, but this was not actively followed, said Baby. Initially, schools were given the option to choose whether teachers were to be
trained in Linux systems or Microsoft. The option has now narrowed down to migration.
In the current year, class VIII students have shifted to Linux. By 2007, class XI students and by 2008 class X students will follow suit.
Linux PC dealers are upbeat. “Offers of pre-loaded Linux operating system could fetch good hardware sales margins,” says PK Harikrishnan, president, Kerala Computer Manufacturers’ and Dealers’ Association.
There are other reasons as well. A sting operation by Microsoft in October 2005 had not endeared the proprietary software to PC and peripherals dealers. Often PC vendors are caught between customers’ demand for free pirated software along with hardware, and the fine print of law. Some dealers in Kerala even see the Foss market as a narrow, but a safe corridor out of this mess.
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