[Fsf-friends] News:Indian government initiative launches Linux portal

[Raj Mathur]

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>>>>> "Praveen" == Praveen A <Praveen> writes:

    Praveen> India's National Informatics Centre (NIC) has launched an
    Praveen> Open Source Forum (OSF). The project is part of an
    Praveen> initiative of the government's Department of Information
    Praveen> Technology. OSF encourages an exchange of ideas,
    Praveen> information, and first-hand reports of Linux in practice.

    Praveen> Read full story at :
    Praveen> http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS2209345962.html

Frankly, I'm pretty tired of reading ``Open Source'' this and
``Linux'' that.  Everyone's paying lip service to Linux, while
ignoring the principles of free software altogether.  Let's take the
case of this press release itself:

1. ``...as well as Java Messenging Service (JMS) solutions.''

Why does NIC need to go Java, which is IMNSHO a proprietary language,
to promote open source?  Why not Perl or even Python or Ruby?

2. ``Sun Microsystems landed a significant deal in March with the
government of Haryana''

...and this deal includes Sun's proprietary Star Office software.

3. ``Hyderabad, India-based ELX said it expects to double sales of
Linux desktops...''

...and ELX is a proprietary product based on the Linux kernel and GNU
utilities.  I hope they have sorted out their licensing issues with
Qt.  Someone got the time to investigate? :)

4. ``Oracle, too, reports that more of its customers in India are
moving to Linux...''

Don't even need to say anything about Oracle.

So is this deal (or this press release) benefiting the free software
community in India in any way?  No!

There's no difference between running proprietary software on Linux
and running it on another platform, e.g. Windows.  Whether your
approach is ideological (free software is right) or pragmatic (open
source is technically better), adding proprietary components to a free
OS is tantamount to dragging the whole solution down to the security,
stability and flexibility of a proprietary one.

I've been fighting the whole ``more Linux is better'' mindset within
the Delhi LUG for some time.  I'm glad to say that, if not agreement,
at least we're getting thought and discussion about the value of sheer
numbers as compared to the power of ideas and the free software
philosophy.

Let's stop worrying about who's using Linux and who isn't.  Let the
Gartners and Slashdorks and Forest Groups continue having their
interminable discussions, arguments and counter-arguments about TCO
and growth and market penetration and adoption.  Our job is to spread
awareness about the philosophy and ideology underlying free software,
let's concentrate on that.

Regards,

- -- Raju
- -- 
Raj Mathur                raju@kandalaya.org      http://kandalaya.org/
       GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5  0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F
                      It is the mind that moves
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