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Bridging India's Digital Divide With Linux
Kinnu provides a pointer to this story about India's increasing use of Linux. They mention a battlefield PDA running Linux, making Linux the standard OS for students, and some more about the Simputer.
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This sort of thing really needs to hit america. Its really hard to convince americans (even computer science students) to even look at linux. They have windows so pounded in to their heads they won't even look at something else. I'm glad that the rest of the world is starting to pick up the ball though, eventually we won't be able to avoid it here in america (unless it ends up like the poor, poor metric system)
--untwisted
*BSD struggles a with hardware support, this is the main reason that people are slow on the uptake of it for applications such as this, I would be all for *BSD, I use it on a regular basis and am pleased with it however I always install it on older machines so the hardware is supported.
Hmm...let's see, on one hand there's "Windows Lite" and on the other there's open, free Linux.
Is it really that surprising that India chooses Linux?
Imagine if the vast armies in Bangalore and Hyderabad get to know Linux and open source software in general, and all start scratching their personal itches. This could mean a giant boost for both existing and new open source projects.
It's being Fourth World and the poor Indian folks can't pay for Windows I'm afraid.
first of all, the story is about military embedded usage.
secondly, tell me how many people in the western world actually pay for windows?, a huge chunk of people use an illegal copy.
thirdly, you don't know shit about india, so don't talk.
It'd be just desserts if this sinks the companies involved. They want employees to understand that a "world economy" creates natural downward forces on jobs in affluent nations but want every customer to pay like they live in the U.S.
Irregardless, managing for long-term viability is a dead concept.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
Impossible learning curve of Linux?
I made an 80 year old man run linux on his first ever computer. He was writing, managing and printing documents after a couple of hours. I think it might be you doing the sucking, not linux.
The system had the verbosity of HTML combined with all the readability of compiled assembly viewed as bitmap images
I'm not surprised... Linux isn't THAT bad to learn. If a person wants to dedicate even the smallest amount of time, they can learn to use just about anything with a UI (console is a bit more tricky). Apps are pretty cookie-cutter now, so as long as you know how to start them you should be ok.
.conf file or setting. I'm not saying it's common, but it happens.
I will give the anonymous coward the point that OS X is easier to learn. The UI is more polished, and there's less worry about messing with some obscure
As for cheaper than PC's... sorry. If you want, you could argue the mac-mini thing, or that the quality of a PowerBook is much better than the quality of a Dell Inspiron of the same price. But in reality, Apples are more expensive.
As for a country choosing a platform to begin a major CIS/IS venture, linux is the obvious choice. It's free, open, and can run on older hardware. Plus, knowing the inner-workings helps a person understand a lot about computers.
I have no problem with India becoming a information powerhouse, or with them getting consulting business. My only problem is with the companies that replace full time employees with a consulting firm in India.
If you are around the age of 30 like me you will remember toying with 8-bit computers, not the most user friendly and easy to use computers. No gui, no mouse and often no disk drive.
But we loved those 8-bit machines, they were fresh, something new and exciting. Just like a PC will be to someone who has never owned a computer before. If you are starting out in computing now then you aren't likely to have 10 or so years of Windows experience behind you. You will approach things with an open mind. Windows users typically believe Linux is a very hard OS, it isn't, it's a lot more open and straight forward. It's just different to Windows like German is a different language to English.
Because releasing something under a BSD license will result in a big corporation taking your hard work, smack a logo on it and after having made it incompatible with your version, charge YOU for it.
BSD under a GPL license would make all the difference.
Ill hammer it in again, its the friggin license that puts everybody off, BSD is nice otherwise.
HTTP/1.1 400
Less educated people like Americans? And to be fair, I am an American. But we seem to be getting more and more stupid. Look who just got re-elected. We allowed, and are still allowing, companies like Microsoft to do their dirty dealings. If you ask me, the rest of the world is leapfrogging us in technology because our opinion of ourselves is too high. We need to quit believing that we are the best and that all we need to do is pray to Jesus to fix all our problems.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Does anyone else find it amusing that they used English words to form a Hindi acronym?
Says something about Indian culture.
You're full of shit. The BSD license requires that proper credits be given. In fact that's the only requirement.
How can you not understand this, and yet espouse the greatness of the much more complex GPL?