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.

Comments

If they can do it, why can't we!

[untwisted]

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)

Good for OSS projects

[bvankuik]

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.

Kind of interesting...

[Sheetrock]

That 80% of development jobs are being outsourced to India but don't seem to pay enough for developers to buy their own product.

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.

Re:India should use OS X, not Linux

[Orgazmus]

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.