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Indian State Switches to Linux
pamri writes "In a pleasant and surprising move, the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, has opted to switch to Linux from Microsoft for its Gyandooth (intranet in Dhar district connecting rural cybercafes catering to the everyday needs of the masses) programme. What is more surprising is that the state's Chief Minister Digvijay Singh personally conveyed this to Bill Gates. A choice quote: 'For us it is not a question of Microsoft versus Linux. It is just a matter of choosing between a free software and a monopoly. We feel that when we are putting public information out in the open, then it should not be through a proprietary software.'"
OH please.
Move to India. Leave this country.
Become one of the "untouchables".
See what it's like to live in a country, where because of an accident of birth, you literally aren't *allowed* to do anything but scrub public urinals for the rest of your life, get any sort of education, or look the higher castes in the eyes. See if your lofty anti-american criticisms remain when you have to remove your shoes and bow your head just to walk past one of your 'betters', and you're denied medical treatment because the social order views you as beneath contempt.
Gandhi didn't change shit. That still goes on day to day, I've seen it firsthand. That country disgusted me at just how insensitive humans can be to their own kind. Cows are worshipped, people left in the street to die.
AND, India has one of the most corrupt governments around. Kickbacks? Bribes? Abuse of authority? Conflicts of interest? Our local politicians could learn a *LOT* from the Indians.
I really find it hard to believe there was anything altruistic about using linux, and more of an answer to MSFT's announcing it would be cracking down harder on piracy in the region, and if Gates paid the customary round bribes, you'd see Windows XP on every one of those PCs.
I read the story as Gates' having the convictions to refuse to do business that way.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Mafia == Microsoft nice one. i don't think microsoft goes around shooting cops and other people. and besides the whole monopoly thing (which was handled by the courts) how else does microsoft resemble the mob? that's the most idiotic comparison i've ever seen
I'd have encountered SAMBA if I had any windoze machines, but I don't.
I've got exim instead of sendmail, so I don't really know if there's anything hard about sendmail. Exim is easy to configure and comes very well documented.
Kernel panic? Well, that has happened to me once or twice. Once on an overheating machine. Once on a machine where I screwed up by not knowing how to work lilo. Never on a reasonlable machine with a normal install of Debian or Red Hat. Ever.
In any case, there is no comparing the "problems" you have cited to M$ crap. When a piece of free software does not work there IS something you can do about it. If the man or info page fails you, unlikely, and a google search does not turn up an answer right away, you can always download and read the source code itself. I've never had to do that, ever, becuse man and info generally list where all the configuration files are and those are almost always well documented. What happens when some bogus M$ code pulls up the old blue screen of death? You reboot, look at MSDN, google, and what not. But you can never ever actually fix the problem because only one company sits on the source and you are at their mercy. They get around to it when they get around to it, sometimes that's never and that's why M$ boxes fail so often, are so easy to break into and cost so much to own and run.
Poor pot and kettle, they've been sitting in the smoke of propriatory software so long they can't see the light of day.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
While I'm glad that India is embracing open-source and Linux so heartily, it's really going to do jack shit for that country unfortunately. I'm an American businessman in the import- export business, so as you might guess, my frequent travels take me to many places around the world, on every continent.
I wanted to share my experience in the "great" country of India.
So, I was in Bangalore, India last March for about a week on business. A bit of background: Bangalore is a special technology development area that the Indian government set up to try and give foreigners the illusion that India really ISN'T a moldering third world country with its populace living in utterly squalid, filthy slums. Here, rules are relaxed and IT and other technology is encouraged. Well, let me tell you this, if this is India's best, then I'd hate to see the worst.
Anyways, when I stepped off the plane from Delhi (which was no paradise itself, as that place has gone down the shitter since the Brits left) I was shocked. The whole place smelled like a combination of vomit, death and cow dung that had been left out in the sun for a day or so. And it was probably BECAUSE there was vomit and cow dung all over, with many people seemingly near death (or are they dead already) lying in agony in the streets from God knows what. Kids were playing in filthy pools, throwing shit around. I almost retched, and I've certainly been in some sketchy places in my travels but NOTHING like this.
People spit everywhere. Trash litters the streets. I found myself looking DOWNWARD much more than looking FORWARD when I walked.
Noise pollution is endemic. It doesn't help that their infernal language consists of gibberish that is a cacophony for any human ear to bear. How do they speak and listen to that shit without going crazy all day long is beyond me.
Anyways, Indians stink -- literally. There is no concept of personal hygiene whatsoever. Meetings with even top officials were hourlong sessions of having to endure hot sweaty bodies and rancid breath eminating from mouths missing a few teeth. Geez, at least use deodorant for crying out loud. And you guys might want to re-think that cow-worship thing -- they aren't exactly the cleanest of animals to be keeping around, and sharing living spaces with humanity.
The hypocrisy, corruption, and double-standards from the highest levels of government on over are the norm at the same time India opens up to the world as a purported source for "cheap" IT and other "skilled labor". Foreigners get charged as much as five times for transportation, lodging, food, and everything else.
Traffic is horrible. Rules are non-existent except for at traffic lights: red means to go fast, green means to go REALLY REALLY fast.
The Indian people themselve are pretty apathetic and everyone just wants to get out of that hell hole, so you see smuggling rings shipping people out hidden in truck beds and ships, all too often with tragic results.
The whole country, in my assessment is a lost case. Even the cheap IT services that everyone talks about can be found in Eastern Europe or Asia, where at least the country and its people don't experience stuff like plague and cholera as a day to day way of life.
Anyways, the one redeeming quality were the girls. I was having dinner (by the way, how can anyone eat that curry shit for all their lives, is way beyond me) with a young female business associate, and afterwards, we had a few drinks. One thing lead to another and I paid 1500 rupees (about $30 US) for a great fuck, with a bright 25 year old programmer. Boy, those Indian girls sure can get it on -- almost as good as the CHinese. Much better than even the vaunted Thai whores, and worlds apart from anything in Las Vegas or in Europe.
So yeah, screw the hell hole that's India. It's a lost cause of a country suspsended by a hollow facade of so-called IT development that's just show more than anything.
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
Actually my senator, Russ Feingold [senate.gov], was the only one to vote against the USA Patriot Act.
Ah, my mistake.
I got them mixed up. The point stands with the names changed.
Another interesting fact that's made even more bizarre by its tragic end is:
In August 2001, FBI Deputy Director John O'Neill resigned from his post over George W. Bush's policy on terrorism and Osama bin Laden. Specifically, O'Neill's department was told to "back off" their bin Laden and Al Queda investigations while the Bush administration negotiated with the Taliban. O'Neill became the security chief of the World Trade Center - where he died during the events of 9/11.
Quoted from here.