President Of India Advocates OSS 702
cOdEgUru writes "I am sure this is a first. The President of India has urged Indian IT Professionals to develop and specialise in OSS rather than Windows. To be noted is that he made the speech (look for the "Think Different" section) at the famous Indian Institute of Information Technology (India's foremost academic institution equivalent to MIT). Also he reminisces that his meeting with Mr.Gates were difficult due to differing views concerning OSS and Security. What should be noted about him is that he is not a politician, but a scientist and an independent thinker foremost."
Re:Great (Score:3, Informative)
Has anyone else got difficulties getting used to
It is I2IT not IIT! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Problems? (Score:1, Informative)
It happens :/
Correction! (Score:4, Informative)
There are two things wrong with that: first, you got the name wrong: he made the speech at the "International Institute of Information Technology". Second, you're probably confusing it with IIT, Indian Institute of Technology, which is the one that fits the description of India's foremost academic institution. Two unrelated universities.
This is what he said.. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:He talked to BillG about opensource.. (Score:3, Informative)
Considering SFU was developed entirely in India, as well as the fact that all top 20 IT and commn giants have a direct presence in India, Microsoft would come rather late in th list of hitech firms.
Re:In India (Score:5, Informative)
There is a sizeable population in India which earns very well and significantly contributes to the Indian economy.
IIT, IIIT and I2IT (Score:4, Informative)
RTFA!
He made the speech at the International Institute of Information Technology (I2IT) not at an Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT).
By no stretch of the imagination are any of these India's foremost academic institutions. The submitter perhaps meant one of the Indian Institute of Technologies (IIT) here...
Re:In India (Score:5, Informative)
You assume that
working on OSS == working for nothing.
Take a look at the kernel development list. You will find that nearly everyone working on the kernel is employed by a big IT company.
Similarly with most other successful OSS projects. IBM has lots of people working on open source. Ditto RedHat, Suse, HP, Sun, AOL and others. I think it is time we dropped this idea that OSS programmers all do it for free - it isn't the case.
Re:Bit Slanted.... (Score:5, Informative)
The Indian President, APJ Abdul Kalam, has received the highest civilian award in India, Bharat Ratna, before he was elected President. He is a nuclear Scientist, who headed India's defense laboratories.
Re:In India (Score:5, Informative)
Re:true wisdom. (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, Gandhi believed in the doctrine of Ahimsa, or non-violence. His brand was a bit different from that of the Jesus "Slap-my-left-cheek-and-I'll-show-you-my-right" brand.
While advocating tolerance to evil, Gandhi also extolled self-defence and defence-preparedness. To sum up, Gandhi would've approved the design of nuclear misiles, but with a rider - to be employed after all other peaceful avenues (Ahimsa - non-violence, satyagraha - The path of Truth) etc. were exhausted.
With reference to MS, this could have meant - If MS lives and lets Open Source live - no worries. If they adopt an either-you-or-me attitude, then it's time to act positively and decisively.
Re:Productivity software is the pebble (Score:2, Informative)
what was it that stops writers to adopt OpenOffice?
Not my first choice of proponent (Score:2, Informative)
President Kalam is clearly a brilliant man, no question. So, of course he isn't fooled by Microsoft FUD, and he's a security minded hindu nationalist, so naturally he favors open source, which is more secure, and more independent of US influence.
Before he was President, he was the chief scientific advisor to the government for many years (decades, I believe.) He's been a major proponent of high tech military Indian Nationalism; he was the candidate [yahoo.com] of the hindu nationalist party, the right wing nuts who won't prosecute people for butchering muslims. He's been a major proponent of nuclear proliferation on the subcontinent, as well; he actually designed the missiles that would deliver an Indian nuke.
I wouldn't want Oppenheimer to be President, either:
"Dreams float on an impatient wind, A wind that wants to create a new order. An order of strength and thundering of fire." -- from a poem written by Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
How charmingly Vedic! The thunder and fire theme is reminiscent to some of history's best known rightist demagogues.
A little bio of the man, from a supporter. [geocities.com]
So, okay, he's one of us (one of us! one of us!) On the other hand, so is Ted Kaczynski, and I'm sure he favors Linux, too. These are endorsements I could live without.
Re:Microsoft (Score:2, Informative)
Venezuela Goes Open Source [slashdot.org]
The venezuelan central government (from the president to lower representatives) has pushed for over a year a policy where all software financed by the government must be licensed using a OSI approved Open Source license.
Kalam is a MUSLIM ! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:true wisdom. (Score:3, Informative)
Can't afford MS anyway (Score:3, Informative)
From the CIA World Factbook 2002 edition...
India:
GDP per capita: $2,540
Population below poverty line: 25%
Unemployment rate: 8.8%
Internet service providers: 43
Internet users: 7 million
True that there are over a billion people in India but the vast majority are involved in agriculture, are uneducated, and most likely will never be able to afford a computer. Its not like this is a major blow to MS.
From a government standpoint, India is much better off using free software and saving money for public health and other more pressing issues.
Some facts about our President (Score:5, Informative)
2. Current president Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is an exception. While previous presidents were just symbolic heads as dictated by constitution, Dr Kalam has actually taken steps to bridge the communication gaps, meeting publically and raising his opinions on matters... to much discomfort of the dirty politicians.
3. Dr. Kalam meets hundreds of school children daily. His vision is to bring about awareness in current generation and imbibe a scientic vision in them. He encourages them to question the things around them.
4. Dr. Kalam has been very supportive of humanitarian work. His team developed an ultra-light carbon composite for heat shields of ICBM Agni missile. Working with a doctor, Dr Kalam made available that material for making artificial limbs of physically challanged children. An artifical leg for children which used to weigh 3.5 KG (7 pounds) now weights 300 grams (less than 1 pound). Dr Kalam lists this achievement in his 3 life time achievements above all nuclear and missile stuff !!
5. He has written two books which are one of its kind. You have to read them to believe them!
Re:true wisdom. (Score:3, Informative)
A combination of a military and religious extremisim in an undemocratic country is not exactly consucive to peace. China is less of a danger now that at least some eonomic reforms have taken place, which give a form of democracy.
India isn't a particularly agressive country and apart from the expense (when so many remain so poor), I don't have any problems with them being armed, particularly with Pakistan next door.
Re:Slashdot moderators have combined IQ of 300 (Score:2, Informative)
Re:true wisdom. (Score:5, Informative)
Or more precisely, on Dr Kalam leading the team which made the nuke bomb.:-)
Two different perspectives on this. Larry Collins and Dominic Lapierre, in their extremely readable book, Freedom at Midnight, had suggested that India's testing of the bomb in 1970's was the final break from Mahatma Gandhi's path of non-violence and ahimsa. Raj Chengappa, in a much later book on Pokhran II, Weapons of Peace, asked the same question to the nuclear team, which, of course, consisted of Dr Kalam. The team apparently had their conscience clear; they were developing nuclear weapons not to increase India's fighting ability, but to increase its deterrent ability. We had, to be sure, "not seeked territory in a thousand years" (or something like that; quoting the words from memory), and that, therefore, Gandhiji would have approved.
I'm sure the team meant well, and personally, I've always admired Dr Kalam and the other team leader, Dr Chidambaram, but with all due respects, the deterrent ability of India's nukes (and indeed our missiles) have long been answered on the snow-capped peaks of Kargil. They are not going to stop terrorists from killing Indian nationals or attacking Indian installations, establishments and everything we hold dear. Not just that, we must also note that large-scale industries are not discouraged, alchohol is not prohibitted (or even if it was, the prohibition has been lifted), or village-level self-governance is not encouraged.
I don't know if Gandhiji would have approved, but let's at least be honest here:- India has left Gandhi a long time back, during the days of our first PM, Nehru itself, when we had established factories, dams and other large scale industries that Gandhiji detested so much.
Re:In India (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Slashdot moderators have combined IQ of 300 (Score:2, Informative)
As seen on http://slashdot.org/: Have you Meta Moderated [slashdot.org] recently?
Re:Indian president is a technocrat.. (Score:3, Informative)
He also has a DMIT in Aeospace Engineering from MIT (Madras) which incidentally has 2 nobel laureates which is more than can be said than for several american school including Georgia tech(Jimmy Carter's prize for peace hardly counts) If you really want to learn about this great man and his career read his autobiography "Wings of fire" [amazon.com]
Re:Ahh... (Score:2, Informative)
If that's your problem, it's hardly exclusive to Indians; have you ever tried talking to someone from Glasgow?
Re:Microsoft (Score:2, Informative)