Indian State Logs Microsoft Out

slack_prad writes "An Indian state, Kerala has chalked out a plan for migrating its high school students to free software platforms in three years. This was apparently in response to RMS's recent visit to the place. The education minister for the state said that the Free software guru Richard Stallman's visit last week had nudged the schools to discard the proprietary software altogether. 'Stallman has inspired Kerala's transition to free software on the lines of an exciting model of a Spanish province.' Initially, schools were given the option to choose whether teachers were to be trained in Linux systems or Microsoft. The option has now narrowed down to migration."

Comments

RMS is an evangelist

[blueZ3]

He appears to have no interest in the practical outcome of his evangelism, either in regards to implementation or tracking results amongst converts. His MO seems to be to come in, spout the benefits of Free Software, and immediately leave the scene before any questions of practicality arise.

That's fine if you're interested in Free Software solely as a political tool (which seems to be the case with RMS). But if you're actually interested in the long-term viability of the model, how it is interwoven with the Open Source movement, and the practical outcomes that can be used as a tool to encourage more folks to look at Free Software as an alternative, you really need hard numbers.

That's not RMS's "thing" though. Hopefully someone else will do the necessary followup.