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OSS In Corporate India

Posted by Hemos on from the inroads-worldwide dept.

ScorpFromHell writes "This article gives examples of some corporations in India which have gone the OSS/Linux way, or are starting out. And it seems that Linux has made these corporations to take a look at other OSS applications too. Slowly and steadily OSS seems to be heard even outside the academic circles and the mailing lists. Localisation still remains one of the main focus of many OSS projects in India, which is a huge task as India has 15 "official" languages, each with its own script. There are thousands of dialects more if they are to be considered too! But without localisation it is difficult to introduce computers (let alone OSS) to the majority of the Indian population, even if it is to be one computer per village! One of the other stumbling blocks seems to be unavailability of Linux professionals. May be it is because Microsoft donates money and its software to the schools at subsidized prices that not many students learn about Linux?"

2 of 8 comments (clear)

  1. Smells like dead horse by MrResistor · · Score: 2, Insightful

    May be it is because Microsoft donates money and its software to the schools at subsidized prices that not many students learn about Linux?"

    Well, I learned "computers" on Apple IIe and Commodore PET, and I (and everyone I know) have managed to figure out Windows just fine, and those of us with a reason to have not had much trouble gaining an equivalent knowledge of Linux, or MacOS either.

    This has always seemed like kind of a dead horse to me.

    Heh, maybe India needs some sort of H1-B program...

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    Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
  2. Windows?? by Jon+Peterson · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "May be it is because Microsoft donates money and its software to the schools at subsidized prices that not many students learn about Linux?"

    Oh, yes, that'll be it. Who'd learn about foo for free when they can get bar for almost free? I mean, the main reason Christianity is so popular in the US is because bibles are heavily subsidised.

    Meanwhile, in reality land, it could be that Indian programmers would like maximise their chances of gainful employment, and so learn to use the most widespread OS? Gee, I wonder if that could be it.

    Jon 'try the horse in front of the cart next time' Peterson.

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