Tamil Nadu (India) Shutting the Door On Microsoft 269
aprasadh writes "The government of Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India, has begun initiatives to convert all of their IT systems fully to OSS-based software. (The link is a copy of a news item that appeared recently in the Deccan Chronicle, an English-language daily.) The managing director of the IT procurement, consulting, and training agency for the Tamil Nadu government describes the reasons why he has chosen OSS, and also how he dealt with Microsoft executives." From the article: "Initially, 99 per cent of government systems have been running on Microsoft systems but then 2007 will be a watershed year for the state IT sector... We have already dispatched 6,500 Linux systems to village panchayats and another 6,100 Acer desktop systems with Suse Linux operating systems are on their way. We are procuring 20,000 desktop systems for schools, which will run only on Suse Linux... I require at least 500 trainers to train 30,000 state officials across Tamil Nadu in the next six months."
Suse? (Score:3, Interesting)
Not the first (and not the last, I hope) (Score:5, Interesting)
Kerala was the first state to do this - slashdot story [slashdot.org] (and the oblig. dupe [slashdot.org]).
But those stories paint Kerala as some hippie commune full of comrades - I've been following the developments in Kerala [dotgnu.info] for a while and in general all that makes sense.
Of course, most of these states are picking F/OSS for economic reasons - but not exactly about freedom and stuff. I've heard whispers from the gubment that it is the support contracts which are deal killers for F/OSS in general, but of late the government has started taking a socialist approach of doing it in-house rather than contracting it out to vendors (well, it doesn't sound socialist when a company does I.T, right).
Re:Suse? (Score:5, Interesting)
They're Safe (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I wish them ALL success (Score:3, Interesting)
MS overquote? (Score:3, Interesting)
Do we need to hear about this? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Suse? (Score:3, Interesting)
These things are a pain for a newbie (I'm not a complete newbie, but I've had to call in some help to get a few things working).
The real thing that annoys me about opensuse is that certain parts come deliberately crippled (like getting a xine engine that won't play mp3's) and no visible instructions on how to un-cripple. It takes some cajoling to get yast to install xine from packman instead and it would be a whole lot easier if, since they can't provide a non-crippled version, they didn't provide one at all. (so you know any version that you do get will work). Ditto for having to go get libdecss source and compiling it yourself.
I did have some difficult persuading it to partition my HD the way I wanted (in the end, the install got it's way) and that could be VERY hard for a newbie to get their head around if they want anything other than the default settings (like making sure to leave
Suse's installer needs work, like;
- being able to change your installation source without starting again
- going back and fixing errors without starting again
- defaulting to looking up an installation source rather than having people type in ip addresses and folder trees (which should be a last resort)
Still, it works now, so I'm happy.Everything needs to be free.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Free TV [yahoo.com]
Free GOLD!!!! [rediff.com]
The only complaint is rice is cheap not free [hindu.com] - can you imagine paying nearly $0.50 for 10 Kilograms (22 lbs)? Govt. these days....
Congrats SUSE - you got yourself 30,000+ new users who wont complain much. Having said that, everything will get blamed on the "new SW" - including printer jams, network failures - anything.
Re:30,000 government officials? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Suse? (Score:5, Interesting)
True, but there's another issue that's quietly getting attention: Microsoft's potential control over government's computers.
There was a funny example of the problem in the recent discussion here of Vista's DRM. When people mentioned MS's ability to disable your software remotely, one reply was that they've had this ability since XT. Really! This is a huge sword hanging over anyone that needs reliability and control of their own computer systems and data.
This is a really good issue for OSS supporters, and it should be used as a "talking point" at any opportunity. Do you really want a giant American corporation with such power over your computer's software? Such questions can really get the attention of government administrators.
Re:Suse? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Replace "Tamil Nadu" with "South Carolina" (Score:1, Interesting)
I certainly agree, to the point where a lot of what I write now has Web browser implementation rather than any specific processor/OS implementation. And that has worried Microsoft. Why do you think they have tried so hard (and successfully, I might add) to coopt Web standards and force the world to their particular flavor of Web and browser?
OSS but microsoft only is a contradiction in terms. Anything implemented like that will only find, as so many of Microsoft's competitors has, that one fine day, it simply will not work any more. And, if you respond to that and change things every interation to make it work, then Microsoft has won. They like that "churn"; it keeps people working on "catching up", rather than doing any innovation that might overtake Microsoft.
No, no matter what you say, the choice has been framed by Microsoft, enforced by Microsoft's actions and Vista will only further enhance that with more incompatibilities with established standards. It reads like this: you can use Microsoft and nobody else OR you can use anybody else and not Microsoft.
Given that, my choice was easy! It looks as though India's choice was easy, too!
Rubbish (Score:2, Interesting)
Doubtless the likes of Fxxx and their right-wing backers want you to believe everything is terrible so you will accept lower wages and poor working conditions to protect you from the terrifying march of the Chinese, but it would be a good idea to look a little outside the US internal FUD industry and see what the world is really like.
Jumping The Gun, Are We? (Score:4, Interesting)
By my calculation we're talking about 0.003% of those 1 billion people. And Indian call centres for linux will likely be pricier than their Windows counterparts (smaller pool, rising demand). Those call centres are already rising in cost anyway.
Not that it isn't a promising sign... but to suggest all of India will embrace linux seems unrealistic.
Perspective Re-calibration. (Score:4, Interesting)
MS et.all are toast. And with them out, our IT staff becomes second-rate as they become irrelevant.
Your perspective has drifted and needs to be fixed. You seem to equate M$ with US and US technical excellence. Most people would throw away a meter like you, but a new faceplate and a few twists should have you back in operation.
Developers and IT staff at IBM, Red Hat, Novel, Ubuntoo, Mepis, Chrysler, Lowes, GE, and so on and so forth, would tell you that M$ and those who know only that are already second rate. They would not share you assessment of "our IT staff," nor do they fear foreign "competition". In their world, the more the merrier. American excellence does not have to be anti-social.
Re:Suse? (Score:3, Interesting)