Indian Government Keen on Open Source 195
manugarg writes "The Indian government is distributing free CDs of localized open sorce softwares like Firefox, OpenOffice.org etc. to encourage the use of computers across the country. ZDNet reports, 'The Indian government's decision to ship free software in this way likely will be a blow to Microsoft, which plans to release a low-cost version of Windows in India soon. Microsoft originally hoped to release its Windows XP Starter Edition--a low-cost, feature-restricted version of Windows XP--by the end of March, but it's now aiming for a June release.'"
Why Linux Sucks (Score:1, Insightful)
Take installation. Linux zealots are now saying "oh installing is so easy, just do apt-get install package or emerge package": Yes, because typing in "apt-get" or "emerge" makes so much more sense to new users than double-clicking an icon that says "setup".
Linux zealots are far too forgiving when judging the difficultly of Linux configuration issues and far too harsh when judging the difficulty of Windows configuration i
Re:Why Linux Sucks (Score:1)
Aww, you mean that linux will always have more than 1% marketshare and never go below 1%? I'm disapointed.
Re:Why Linux Sucks (Score:3, Informative)
Easy to install... (Score:2)
Linux zealots are now saying "oh installing is so easy, just do apt-get install package or emerge package"
Bah, using Linux is much easier than this; all I have to do is turn my computer on with the Knoppix disc in the drive, and I'm good to go; no fuss, no muss.
Seriously, this is a wonderful thing. If Linux can get out there on the desktops in widespread use before Microsoft gets its crippleware in front of everyone, it will set a standard that will be hard for Microsoft to overcome. Somebody (prefe
Re:Why Linux Sucks (Score:3, Interesting)
I remember before Linux was widely accepted and only the province of masochistic Unix veterans who fervently believed there had to be some way to salvage some of their investment in skill building in that area lest
Linux install was a no-brainer 12 years ago ... (Score:3, Interesting)
I remember 12 years ago when my first Linux was trivial to install, with sound and video. Yggdrasil plug and play Linux. I had used BSD at the University so one day I picked up a FreeBS
Re:Linux install was a no-brainer 12 years ago ... (Score:2)
You got lucky with Yggdrasil, I had to go BUY a mach32 to get X working (more floppies..)
Re:Linux install was a no-brainer 12 years ago ... (Score:2)
Re:Why Linux Sucks (Score:4, Insightful)
"I have not failed to notice that many of the same people are now whining about the totally integrated Windows XP is "teh suxx0r" compared to Linux because Linux has all these powerful command prompt things and all these configuration files and..."
I'm not going to argue with the fact that you can find a troll for any position, but please consider that many (if not most) people who tout Linux over Windows do so based on their professional judgement. I don't think the folks guiding IBM and Novell's Linux policy use the word 'suxx0r' very often, for example.
The problem with the 'totally integrated Windows XP' as you call it has been hashed over so many times, I'm surprised that a silverback like you would have missed why the kind of integration that Microsoft does is a Bad Thing. Read yesterday's thread on browser security for enlightenment if you're still puzzled.
As for command lines and config files, the thing I like best about them is that they allow you to automate just about any process. But most desktop distros these days have GUIs too, so stating that command line and scripting are available for admins does not imply that we expect users to use them as well.
I have a useful little one-line script that allows a new user to reset their desktop environment to the default. So if in the course of exploring their desktop environment things get messed up and they just want to go back to what they had at the start, they can run this script. Rather than force them to understand the CLI, I simply place an icon on their desktop that says, 'Cleanup'.
Now that is the kind of integration that Linux admins love. It's called the 'toolkit approach', and it weaves together the capabilities of thousands of single purpose tools to achieve exactly the desired effect. To the computer user, it's just a 'magic happens' box.
I'm not arguing that you can't do the same thing in Windows, by the way, only that *nix systems are designed to be open and flexible from the ground up, and Linux lovers tend to think that design is superior to Windows' monolithic approach.
Re:Why Linux Sucks (Score:2)
Except that's to often the exact situation. If you don't know how to edit the right files by hand (and what files they are and where they are) you are likely not goi
Re:Why Linux Sucks (Score:2)
Mycroft
Re:Why Linux Sucks (Score:2, Insightful)
1. XP Starter Edition is crippled. Hell, Windows 95 had more functionality.
2. Microsoft are still going to be selling it at a price that's a months wages for most Indian people.
Either they will use the open source stuff being given out free, or they will pirate XP Pro. Microsoft have got to be worried about the government of the country pushing open source though - you can bet there will be no government contracts coming to MS again from India.
Re:Why Linux Sucks (Score:3, Insightful)
Apple is only alive in its current state of health today because they took a monetary injection from Microsoft
Really? Well, you probably didn't dwell on the point for brevity but I'd just like to expand that a little lest it become misleading.
According to this article [com.com] the deal helped to deflect anti trust charges from Microsoft, as the deal included continuation of Office for Mac, and it was also a settlement over disputes with Apple, after MS stole Quicktime code.
The justification for hating Microso
Re:Why Linux Sucks (Score:2)
They could provide one RPM package, and let that be all. If they wanted to be nice they could provide a Debian package as well. But they don't. I just don't see how that means that 'Linux Sucks'.
Re:Why Linux Sucks (Score:1)
Re:Why Linux Sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Linux is hard[er than Windows] to install.
2. Linux doesn't run Windows games well.
3. Linux is hard[er than Windows] for ordinary people to understand.
I have recently installed Windows XP and MEPIS Linux. The latter was much easier. Didn't ask me about domain controllers, or make me hit single keys like "1" and "8" and "y" and choose between NTFS and FAT and choose between quick format and real format
Windows games don't run on Linux. So what? Lots of people use computers for communication, computation, and composition. If you want to play games, fine. Buy Windows or a PS2
You said, "what seems easy and natural to Linux geeks is definitely not what regular people consider easy."
I suggest that the fact that Windows geekdom has somewhat more members than Linux geekdom makes Windows neither easy nor natural for "regular people."
Re:Why Linux Sucks (Score:2)
when your hardware is for whatever reason not properly supported out of the box you can't just grab a makers driver cd and install the driver you need like you can on windows. If there is a linux driver at all it will most likely require figuring out where to get headers for your kernel and then hoping that the module will build ok against your kernel version.
on the other hand linux does support
Re:Why Linux Sucks (Score:4, Insightful)
The average person wants to use their PC for running what PCs run, which include games. Tell an average person that Linux can't do something they want to do that Windows CAN do, and they'll choose Windows EVERY time. Being able to run games is a core function in many people's minds. My mom, for example, runs Solitaire and Oregon Trail 1. Tell her she couldn't run Oregon Trail 1 on Linux and she would never switch from Windows.
And yes, the fact that Windows has more users than Linux DOES make it easier. When grandma has a question about Windows, she can ask the 12 year old neighbor boy. If grandma had a question about Linux, the 12 year old neighbor boy would go "WTF is this?" Then grandma would be SOL until I take the time to go to grandma's.
Re:Why Linux Sucks (Score:2)
Re:Why Linux Sucks (Score:2, Interesting)
What will eventually lead to greater adoption of Linux is the growing n
Re:Why Linux Sucks (Score:2)
Where linux usually shines is in the install of the distro (if you don't have
Re:Why Linux Sucks (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Why Linux Sucks - Quake 3 outsourcing. (Score:1)
Why Computers Suck (Score:3, Interesting)
How do I get regular, made-for-Linux apps to install on Linux? Simple: I fire up Synaptic (a GUI based installer). It prompts me for my root password (same as "Administrator" on a well-managed Windows box). It loads the hundreds and hundreds of packages available to me (which are free). I search for and select a package (or several at once) and click the "Proceed" button.
Is that so tough? Well, perhaps is is if you've NEVER done it before
Re:Why Linux Sucks (Score:2)
Where Zealots Want to Go Today (Score:2)
Re:Where Zealots Want to Go Today (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Where Zealots Want to Go Today (Score:2)
Re:Where Zealots Want to Go Today (Score:2)
Re:Why Linux Sucks (Score:2)
Running quake is as easy as installing Ubuntu (answer a couple of questions like "name", "date", and "is it ok for me to wipe your hard-drive to install", then run the package manager, and install the nvidia driver, and then download and run the quake installer.
No, the installer isn't on CD, but that will change in time.
You still need to download quake updates with windows to play on most of the online servers in any case.
smash.
Re:Why Linux Sucks (Score:2)
There's also the issue installs on windows all work differently, you get executeable installers that all look and behave differently, and then you get msi files and who knows
Nice planning. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Nice planning. (Score:1)
Re:Nice planning. (Score:1)
If you're building a Windows machine
then the hardware us the cheap part.
Now all i need is a pc (Score:1)
Simputer [simputer.org]
New ! PicoPeta Simputers Pvt Ltd unveils Amida Simputer for the retail market
The Simputer is a low cost portable alternative to PCs, by which the benefits of IT can reach the common man.
It has a special role in the third world because it ensures that illiteracy is no longer a barrier to handling a computer.
The key to bridging the digital divide is to have shared devices that permit truly simple and natural user interfaces based on sight, touch and audio.
The Simputer meets these demands t
India likes OS software (Score:2)
Eventually, the government plans to release CDs in all of the 22 official languages of India.
Holy crap, just how many languages exactly does a country need! I know its a big place but 22! It must require 95% of all IT resources just to localise software. How do they manage to find time for offshore work?
Re:India likes OS software (Score:5, Informative)
There are many other "minor" languages spoken by other people.
Mind you, these are not dialects. These are full-blown unique languages with unique written scripts (however, many of them do share common traits).
It is amazing how we are able to maintain a democracy, let alone a country.
Re:India likes OS software (Score:2)
Re:India likes OS software (Score:2)
btw, yeah, i meant what i wrote! =)
Re:India likes OS software (Score:2)
i thought you meant 1 billion in total and made a typo
sorry
Re:India likes OS software (Score:3, Insightful)
I know you weren't passing a judgment, but the number of languages in a country is not about a "need." It's more about the diversity of cultural/ethnical heritage. Also, I imagine the recognition of different languages as "official" probably contribute quite a bit to the preservation of different culture/ethnicity and improve political relations between them.
Re:India likes OS software (Score:3, Insightful)
I assume Hindi is accepted as standard language so people can actually communicate with each other.
Re:India likes OS software (Score:4, Interesting)
I assume Hindi is accepted as standard language so people can actually communicate with each other.
Actually, they use English. Ended up spending a month or so over there and found I could communicate better with the taxi drivers in New Delhi than NYC.
Re:India likes OS software (Score:2)
Re:India likes OS software (Score:2)
Having common "official" languages is useful, Canada even has two at only 35 million people.
That said, I prefer diversity -- being able to communicate with each other should be on the basis of learning each others' language, not submitting to a state-sponsored one.
Re:India likes OS software (Score:3, Insightful)
If you thought about India as a federation of many different nations with their own markets, languages, and so on, you'd be closer to the mark.
It's a fascinating place and I'd like to visit it someday. India is an enormous and invaluable repository of human culture and
Re:India likes OS software (Score:4, Informative)
From the CIA World Factbook [cia.gov]:
Re:India likes OS software (Score:2)
That's great (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:That's great (Score:2)
Re:That's great (Score:2)
so we need standard ways of giving each charactor a reference computers can deal with and unicode (usually encoded into a utf-8 bytestream) has become the standard means of doing this.
Coincidence? (Score:3, Funny)
Last Slashdot Submission - Ask Slashdot: Using Computer Stores to Spread Open Source?
Lemmie think here...
Future Submission? Apu: Thank You, Come Again!
Re:Coincidence? (Score:2)
A beginning is what many people do: distribute freely. E,g, I ordered Ubuntu Hoary disks both i386&amd64, gave some of them to a friend, keep one and I'll leave the rest for the public at my former university. Good thing is, that generally there have always been a significant number of linux people.
Re:Coincidence? (Score:1)
Apu is an Indian convence store clerk in the show.
He is suggesting the next step is to find Linux distro CDs at convence stores for like $5 a disk.
That would turely rock.
However my dream is to see Linux distributed like AoL disks.
Linux distro CDs dropping out of mags. In everyones mail boxes.
"I'm sick of Windows. Give me one of those coasters zeek I'm going to install it."
Insert evil laugh.
Yeah it'd need to have some service
umm (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:umm (Score:2, Funny)
I think filling tubes with a flammable liquid and lighting them on fire to simulate light sabers is a little stupider than Windows XP Started Edition
Re:umm (Score:1, Offtopic)
Yeah, but it's not like there's anyone stupid enough to actually do that...oh wait...nevermind. Forget I posted
more stupid ideas... (Score:1)
you have some strong contenders to Windows XP Starter Edition:
maybe time for another /. poll?
Re:umm (Score:2)
It's like calling a pack of Marlboro 60s a "Marlboro Starter Pack"
Re:umm (Score:2)
Here we have people getting paid for spending time with making a product less useful, directly damaging a small part of the total wealth of society, in the attempt to keep prices up. Market vandalism.
That could not happen in a competetive free market without monopoly protections.
Downloadable version (Score:3, Informative)
empahsis (Score:1)
Re:empahsis (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyway, hippies amuse me. What is the only way to deal with starvation? Money! How do you make money? By spending less, and making more. Linux should help the Indian government do both.
Re:empahsis (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:empahsis (Score:2)
Re:empahsis (Score:3, Insightful)
Not that I'm a big fan of outsourcing because it totally sucks for those of us left in the tech industry in the U.S., but...
By worrying about things such as computers and development models, India is vastly improving its economic situation, raising the standard of living for its citizens and enabling itself to provide basic necessities of which you speak.
If I were Inidan, I would see their (our, I guess, if I were Indian) progress over the past decade as an extremely hopeful sign of economic power that
Re:empahsis (Score:2)
You know, first, you're not the only country where companies do outsourcing, so forgive me if I'm not sorry for you guys. Second, judging outsourcing is always relative, and it's always better for those who get work because some companies bring them work. Poorer countries also need to raise from poverty, and foreign companies investing in this form or the other, is a help, even if i
Re:empahsis (Score:3, Funny)
If you leave those two problems alone long enough, they'll solve each other.
(Note to humorless mods: this is a joke!)
Re:empahsis (Score:3)
Yup, one more american who "knows" how the world looks like outside the US, and giving "advice". No wonder, really. And not even exasperating anymore.
piracy (Score:2, Insightful)
"plans to release a low-cost version of Windows"b (Score:3, Interesting)
I used to sell computers back in the 80's. I'd ask the cstomer. What do you want to do with your computer? The usual answer was, "Oh, just some basic word processing". So I'd sell the adequate hardware and software to do that.
These days I bet the most common answer is.
Word processing, internet, photography, and taxes.
Entry level windows, if it did all these things, economically, would sell like hotcakes. Wordpad and notepad are not quite enough and office is way too much for most people. Why doesn't Microsoft have a cokkection of office products. Home office, law office, accountants office, presenters office, Super office(does it all).
They should also split by processor. 32 bit vs 64 bit and not one product for all.
The models for splitting products by functionality and performance to maximize overall profit are well known, yet MS seems to have ignored to opportunity to apply this to software.
IMO they are a decade late and billions short with their entry level windows...
Re:"plans to release a low-cost version of Windows (Score:2)
the way they've handled office document compatibility is so appalling they must either be completely retarded, or they must intentionally make things difficult so you always need the latest, high-price office suite.
XP Starter is almost completely unusable for modern computing. that's how it's supposed to be. to get you hooked a little, and then pay for the expensive full version.
Re:"plans to release a low-cost version of Windows (Score:2)
There were versions of Word Perfect for medical and law offices, at a premium price.
Microsoft sold Office components you could mix and match and customize as needed throughout your organization, if your needs were simpler, there was always Microsoft Works or a Works suite with Microsoft Word. Currently, Student-Teacher Office,
I wonder if the article author... (Score:5, Insightful)
The GoI is many millions of people scattered through hundreds of local, regional and national departments. The likelihood of seeing a common policy position through all those independent individuals is slim.
The GoI will continue to grow its IT capability through as many channels as possible, promoting many different technologies, of which Linux will be one and Windows will be another. Market forces pretty much make the selection from there forwards.
The OSS community has been all to quick to jump up and down heralding the wonders of other government decisions in the past... there is a lesson that needs to be learned though, things like this are just one small step on a much longer and much more complex journey.
There is still a lot of work to be done...
Re:I wonder if the article author... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I wonder if the article author... (Score:2)
Free vs Free. (Score:4, Insightful)
The localization is the key feature here, and has nothing to do with price. But watch for the 100's of posts about cost anyway
An expensive set of brakes (Score:2)
Re:An expensive set of brakes (Score:5, Insightful)
From what the article says it seems to be more about the localisation of the software than anything else, in an attempt to encourage computer use.
Yeah but.... (Score:2)
Re:Yeah but.... (Score:2)
Windows vs Linux, my experience so far (Score:2, Insightful)
My current experience has shown that this task may require the following:
* search for obscure drivers hosted on sites shut-down years ago. * delve into myriads of configuration files (and or GUIs) each with its own (sometimes arbitrary) syntax, even for the most trivial app. * risk messing your OS with a r
Re:Windows vs Linux, my experience so far (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Windows vs Linux, my experience so far (Score:3, Insightful)
Favorate joke about Indians. (Score:2, Funny)
So when somebody in India says "You're one in a million", there are 1,100 people out there just like you.
Not Cheap Enough (Score:2)
Public domain fonts... yummy! (Score:2, Interesting)
Quality and free fonts had long been a problem in the free software development in Tamil language. The OCR software released also would be useful in releasing etexts of the vast literature available in Tamil as
Re:In a nutshell (Score:1)
Re:open sorce softwares (Score:2, Funny)
iSpell vs MsWord: Ms Word has some very bad habbits when it comes to spellchecking. There is some major defect that once triggered Ms Word will produce incorrect results.
One might accuse the Slashdot team of using Ms Word to find spelling errors.
Slashdot: Yeah they are kinda in a hurry. A normal newspaper will have profesional proff readers. Slashdot has nothing, nada, zip and nada III.
Lastly merging points 1 and 2.
Microsoft h
Re:Another potentially missed deadline... (Score:5, Funny)
Do you suffer from some weird kind of epistemological dyslexia? Do you, unlike the rest of us, have some grok like, gestalten faculity that allows you to sense whether a post is offensive before you read it? Ah, you are a l337 jedi, able to sense the dark side.
Re:Another potentially missed deadline... (Score:2)
Re:India choking its own economy? (Score:2, Insightful)
More exposure to tech creates better techies.
Exposure to OSS includes the ability for the exposee to peep under the hood, and have a tweak, if one is that way inclined. And in a country of 1.4 thousand million, (or "billion" as americans insist on calling "thousand million"), more that one person is going to be that way inclined - Increasing the IT savvy of the people can only be good for the economy in the future.
Furthermore, extending the interface to all 22 official languages i
Re:Ah man (Score:1, Troll)
Re:Ah man (Score:3, Interesting)
Geez, the lack of logic and knowledge is frightening.
Re:Ah man (Score:2)
The government i the one that sets tarrifs, trade restrictions, immigration restrictions, etc.
The government is responsible for outsourcing in the same way the Bush administration is responsible for the sky-high gas prices... They've done nothing to prevent it, even though accepted economic theory is that it is their job to take care of it in one way or another.
Re:Ah man (Score:2)
All of which are anathema to a modern economy.
They've done nothing to prevent it
By that logic, the government is responsible for everything. That's a horrible way to define the role of government in a free society. I don't remember anything in the Constitution that says our government is responsible for ensuring that obsolete workers keep their jobs anyway.
even though accepted economic theory is that it is
Re:Ah man (Score:2)
Only in the (made-up) opinions of the richest 1% of the population, and the empty suits they employ to spread their message.
No, you've simply taken this completely out of context. It was a SINGLE SENTENCE for a reason, yet you split it up to make a strawman.
Re:Ah man (Score:2)
I don't know what economic theory you're reading, but there are few things economists agree upon, and a mutual hatred of taxes, tarrifs, and trade restrictions is one of them. This has been true ever since "The Wealth of Nations" was written.
Re:Ah man (Score:2)
Re:Make it mandatory in Govt. offices (Score:2)
I hope they do, because every time I want to read something on an Indian Government website, I'm horrified in new ways. I thought I'd grown immune to the IE-only sites that the Indian Government seems to have a fetish for, but databases of election results in Access [eci.gov.in] is an assault on good taste.