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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.'"
IT is just cheaper on Linux and old hardware. Which the country of India has plenty of.
"India will continue to pirate as long as Microsoft leads everywhere else, though having the governor officially reject capitalism is a good step for socialism."
He did NOT reject capitalism, it was the freedom he didnt want to give up. Thats a very big difference.
HTTP/1.1 400
But what about the growing perspective that Linux is free, and thus, is somehow "cheap"? If this and other third-world countries like South Africa continue to embrace Linux, will it lose points in the corporate boardroom?
Already we have the KDE project, which continues to make a "Windows clone" desktop. New users may be confused by this desktop, and come to think of Linux as a cheap, third-rate alternative to Windows.
Although Linux can't respectfully decline the Indian government's offer, perhaps some its senior officials (Torvalds, Cox etc) should distance themselves from this decision. Otherwise, it we may be hearing "cheap Linux crap!" as often as our racist forefathers used to say "cheap Japanese crap!"
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
Since when is Linux pro-socialism and anti-capitalism? I thought the point behind capitalism is that the best product/service wins, without any help from having an illegal monopoly?
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
And one other point that M$ usually takes great pains to make...think of the training costs to switch to Linux.
To which I'd love to hear someone respond:
"Yeah but that's money that goes back into OUR economy, not Bill's pockets"
People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people
WINE doesn't run CS, Starcraft, UT, and all the other online games that make third-world cyber cafes profitable.
Though some of the official stuff, as well as the more family-oriented shops may change to Linux, the vast majority of cyber cafes will still be running pirated games under a pirated Windows.
I doubt it- this is a government sponsored program - they plainly can't allow pirated software for a host of reasons. If it were for-profit shops, I'd agree with you whole heartedly. The effort here is for education of the poor, not profits.
India will continue to pirate as long as Microsoft leads everywhere else, though having the governor officially reject capitalism is a good step for socialism.
Hunh? This 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."
says they reject capitaism for socialism? That sounds very much like an informed, reasoned choice to me. It also will get the poor of India used to the idea of properly licensed software - and may end up curtailing some of the piracy you speak of.
You sound as though you've pre-judged India as a country with no morals, self respect or smarts, since they have no money. I can assure you that this is definately not the case, especially in the smarts department. Educate yourself on what you speak of, please, especially before you attepmt to make such blanket statements.
As it is, IMHO you definately put the ass in assume.
Soko
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
I find this quote quite fascinating. India is a nation-state where the top 5% of the population own all the wealth
Unlike the US, where the top 5% of the population own something like 80% of the stocks, bonds and real estate.
essentially they have a monopoly on the other lower castes.
I'd be very careful about using the word "caste" if I were you; there's a lot of misinformation about what "caste" means.
All the public infrastructure is publicly owned (trains, electricity).
Unlike, say, Europe?
When some mentions Linux and Socialism in a post, it is a troll.
Principle , priciple he says...
The only reason you think he has principles is that he agrees with your beliefs. Looks like the school boy moderators agree with you.
Principled indeed. He's a politician, do you have any idea what that job involves? It has very little to do with working for the benefit of the electorate.
Don't these stupid jokes get tiresome after awhile? Post something intelligent or don't bother.
Why can't the US make such a switch? I know they have a lot invested in there M$ stuff right now but why could they not change. I think this comes down to people that run the software. We all know that politicians and a lot of people in government jobs are lazy and just there for the money or power. That is what I think is holding us back. Not to mention the lusers we have running things. They could never figure out why they can not get those .vbs files to work and not having to reboot every day.
No, they stuck their hands out and ordereed "PAY US TO USE WINDOWS", Gates said no.
/.'ers who want to compare it favorably to america, need to go live there for a few years.
Indian government runs on bribes and extortion. Any of you
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Just out of curiosity, we hear a lot about people migrating from various solutions over to Linux, but I don't hear much about people doing the reverse. Is this because this just isn't happening (doubt it) or that it's just not publicised? If it does occur, I think it would benefit the community greatly to feature them even more so than those who switch TO Linux. I think the reason is obvious, if someone is switching away, then there is something to be learned. It may be features, it may be economics, or it may even be politics, but I think that we would learn from these turncoa^h^h^h uh, people.
Yes. The notion of government "rejecting capitalism" implies exactly two requirements: (1) to increase the power and expense of government, and (2) to reduce the freedom of the people. Neither one of these requirements has been met with this new proposal, as far as I can see. The individual who made that quote simply does not understand the concepts of capitalism and socialism.
Capitalism is freedom -- specifically, the freedom to engage in voluntary association. Socialism is the exact opposite of this. Socialism is essentially a prohibition of capitalism, because it requires that your freedom of voluntary association be eliminated (or reduced) by the force of government.
> Cows are worshipped, people left to die... ... ...
> one of the most corrupt governments
> Kickbacks? Bribes? Abuse of authority?
True, this goes on. And there is more corruption there than, say, the US. But there are _tons_ of people who try to do right, and...
> Become one of the "untouchables"...
> 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.
An Indian _President_ - the previous one - was one such "untouchable".
Did you really spend time in India? Was it in transit?
> how insensitive humans can be to their
> own kind.
We'd respect what you said more, if you actually do something to help.
> if Gates paid the customary round bribes,
> you'd see Windows XP on every one of those PCs.
I guess you mean Licensed copies, no? I don't quite think India can afford that.
[ From another post of yours ]
> No, they stuck their hands out and ordereed
> "PAY US TO USE WINDOWS", Gates said no.
Gee, you are one investigative Troll!
Ok, I'll bite.
I just read the Ask Slashdot you referred to at -1 (I missed it the first time around...) and don't find any "racist" comments whatsoever.
All I see is a few posts from people griping about H1B Visa workers. While you may have assumed (incorrectly) that all H1B Visa holders come from India (I'm presuming that's why you posted the comment in this story), plenty come from countries such as England, Russia and the Asia-Pac Rim. No one specifically mentioned any race, creed, or religion in any demeaning term.
People are obviously upset about the proliferation of H1B workers in America. It wouldn't have made it to Congress and the mainstream media if there wasn't widespread sentiment about it.
There's a difference between racism and criticism, and I think you need to be a little less defensive unless you feel guilty of something yourself.
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
I have to disagree with you there. IMO, every switch to Linux and friends is significant.
Saying Greece is insignificant would be like saying New Hampshire (pretty small by most counts such as area and population) doesn't amount to much in U.S. Presidential elections.
Little Debian: America's #1 Snack Distro!
This is not entirely true. IAAI (I am an indian). It is true that privacy is rampant among small software companies and large number of individuals. Why will a state govt. do something illegal? Big indian companies and some selected schools would never use pirated software.
The only reason you think he has principles is that he agrees with your beliefs.
You're right - my knee-jerk reaction.
Forgive me, I'm just so conditioned to think that any politician that doesn't automatically climb into bed with money is somehow better and different from most.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
1. build a nuclear arsenal
2. use all the commencial software and international patents you want without paying anything
3. if an commercial embargo sets up, adopt linux and keep the use of patents
4. if someone keeps complaining, bomb them
5. when you get rich, enter the UN security council
6. start selling amunition to every bizarre country in the world
7. when some 'allies' get pissed off and explode your nice buildings, state a war against terrorism to "recover your economy"
8. wait for the end of the world as we know it
(except for the linux detail, adapted without authorization from the united states 'business case')
Even if Office is the best productivity suite available, is it so much better that it is worth the extra cost of the software and the O/S needed to run it?
Not to people who have no need for the alleged additional functionality that Office provides. I have yet to encounter a task that I could do with Office that can't do just as well, and often more easily, with OpenOffice and Mozilla.
If that is true for me, a person who is very familiar with MS products, then I think it is certainly true for someone from the backwaters of India who has little, if any, experience with computers at all.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
This is the government.Specially with the govt. MS Windows is NOT Rs.0 (or Mexican Pesos $0, for that matter) They DO have to pay the licensing. I can see it because I live in Mexico.
I feel compelled to point out a few things.
First, outside of strict mathematical definitions, the statement "Untouchability is not practiced in India anymore" does not necessarily imply that there are absolutely no cases of untouchability practised. It would be tantamount to pointing to news stories within the US involving hate crimes and claiming that the assertion that the US does not support hate crimes is false. Even several counter examples are not sufficient to render the original claim false. When you have a billion people, it is inevitable that some will do stupid things, however that DOES NOT reflect the attitude of the population as a whole. What does reflect the attitudes of the population are the laws upheld by the society, laws which clearly state that any discrimination based on caste are illegal.
Now for your second paragraph. Yes CNN is in fact known for making things up and exagerrating facts, but that is beside the issue.
Lets look at the story you point to:
It is the author that claims that hindus worship cows even though the article has the following quote "Cow in this country is like a mother" which I believe was the original poster's claim.
As for your google links I find it interesting that several of those particular links are sites which try not to present facts but try to convince you of the moral superiority of another religions belief. Come on now, do you honestly expect the site muslimonline.com to present a fair and unopinionated view of any aspect of hinduism?
Indian government runs on bribes and extortion.
Which is different from the US government exactly how?
While corruption is not unknown in the US, these are usually exceptions
You are deluding yourself if you think that this is even remotely true. Corruption is the absolute rule in our government. Explain DMCA, Patriot act, Mickey Mouse Protection act, Homeland Security (alone and with all the riders) in any other way.
In India, the honest politicians would be the exception.
Here we apparently had one left who is now dead.
Wellstone was the one dissenter to the Patriot act.
Anyone who voted in favor of that showed their hatred and contempt of the constitution, freedom, and basically everything America says that we stand for.
If you disagree try and come up with an actual reason that I'm wrong.
It's sad that you can have proof piled upon proof that the US government is completely owned and corrupt yet you are afraid to face the truth.
I'm not singling you out. Most people in America are afraid of facing reality. That is out primary problem.