Kerala shuts windows, schools to use only Linux

[~Phenom~]

Its a good move .It should be implemented in whole of India but Windows should not be completely banned. Teaching Linux on a greater scale and for doing all common tasks will make students/people aware that World can survive without windows also , as against now when many people think Windows is integral component of a computer.It will save a real LOT of money if any school/college is spending on purchasing any windows/softwares which I haven't seen in any school/college I have come across in my life. Also, One can learn windows in a day anytime , right ???

 

[praka123]

I can see how frustrated win only fans are reading this I feel pity for them!

I am proud of my state

What Kerala gov did was the need of the second!
also,M$haft winblow$ is used by many pvt schools along with Linux,JFYI!

Now I know why,M$haft and its devils raided in trivendrum for piracy,fcuk u M$haft,ur finished

regarding the distro used:
it is called it@school which is a custom debian remastered(like Ubuntu too) containing more debian-edu packages.

Now students are gonna learn the correct ideology and knowing what FREEDOM is!unlike devils own M$haft monopoly!

 

[NucleusKore]

Right, but companies which u mentioned like Red Hat or Novell make money on the work of the community & get rich, they don't pay back to the community in money, do they?

Aaaaaaaaaaah!! Gotcha! They do in many more ways than one. Do you know how many developers are on their payroll? Do you know the contribution of Novell? and RedHat

You can install RedHat Linux or SLED without getting sued by them as the OS is open source. You just won't get support, that's all. CentOS is a port of RHEL in case you did not know.

I hope you know about education License of Microsoft??????? Well, sure u don't. They are already doing this.

Here in Lucknow, any Computer Science or IT Student in IET college lucknow (biggest engg college here) can simply get a license for XP/Vista/.net/Server 2008 for a far lower price, after showing his college ID card & other documents etc, cos IET is in collaboration with MS.

Yes I am aware, BUT THEY STILL HAVE TO PAY!! How much for the OS? And I remember seeing the cost of Microsoft Office Teacher and Student edition on their website, Rs. 7500 ? Is that cheap?

I can see how frustrated win only fans are reading this I feel pity for them!

Yes, it's pretty obvious.

I am proud of my state

I hope it's infectious, we're just next door you know

 

[ilugd]

just my two cents.
1. Nothing wrong in the deal. The Government is supposed to set policy and avoid unnecessary spending. It is its jobs. Schools will now implement it.
2. Fighting about the merits of both is actually immaterial now. Both have their own strong points, but for a common student who doesn't actually intend to go into a technical field, but just for office work, any operating system is ok if he has basic knowledge in it. Support may be patchy for now, but soon the local engineers will pick up the necessary skills. Others will follow suit. Kerala is sure showing the way here.
3. It is not that windows will completely disappear. And remember that this is for schools only. You don't play games in school. You can install windows on your home system and play to your heart's content. It is also good for students to have exposure in multiple systems. Will make their concepts a wee bit clearer.
4. It is not really hard. If you get used to it, no problems. I really understand the comment made by my friend here. "will take two years to get to know how to play mp3s" You got to be kidding me right? or you are so out of touch of development in linux now. Unless you have exotic hardware, you have no problems with linux.
5. It is not about money only. It is more about giving students the freedom to look under the hood. Windows is ok, no problems, but once students start using linux, computers will not be some scary devices.
6. Making money isn't exactly bad. But making your users resent you for inconveniencing them for the sake of money is bad. Very bad.


There is however one problem.
Where are they gonna get teachers to teach linux? Anybody thought about that?

Also the Kerala State Cyber Team should setup a good quality website with tutorials and videos on linux so that students can visit and learn about linux. Maybe even provide interesting Educational CDs with Videos and audio material to students. Otherwise the effort may be a damp squib.

 

[goobimama]

I loved Gx's first comment! Classic!

As for Linux in schools, this is big news..

 

[NucleusKore]

just my two cents.
1. Nothing wrong in the deal. The Government is supposed to set policy and avoid unnecessary spending. It is its jobs. Schools will now implement it.

Yes

2. Fighting about the merits of both is actually immaterial now. Both have their own strong points, but for a common student who doesn't actually intend to go into a technical field, but just for office work, any operating system is ok if he has basic knowledge in it. Support may be patchy for now, but soon the local engineers will pick up the necessary skills. Others will follow suit. Kerala is sure showing the way here.

Yes, and earlier when it was windows only it was "fair", according to some on this thread, crazy people.

3. It is not that windows will completely disappear. And remember that this is for schools only. You don't play games in school. You can install windows on your home system and play to your heart's content. It is also good for students to have exposure in multiple systems. Will make their concepts a wee bit clearer.

Point well taken. In fact you hit the nail on the head.

j4. It is not really hard. If you get used to it, no problems. I really understand the comment made by my friend here. "will take two years to get to know how to play mp3s" You got to be kidding me right? or you are so out of touch of development in linux now. Unless you have exotic hardware, you have no problems with linux.

Oh yes that someone is SO OUT OF TOUCH.

5. It is not about money only. It is more about giving students the freedom to look under the hood. Windows is ok, no problems, but once students start using linux, computers will not be some scary devices.

Yes, they can really learn it in depth.

6. Making money isn't exactly bad. But making your users resent you for inconveniencing them for the sake of money is bad. Very bad.

There is however one problem.
Where are they gonna get teachers to teach linux? Anybody thought about that?

Also the Kerala State Cyber Team should setup a good quality website with tutorials and videos on linux so that students can visit and learn about linux. Maybe even provide interesting Educational CDs with Videos and audio material to students. Otherwise the effort may be a damp squib.

Yes, it is a problem, especially when teachers are stubborn.

Another step in the right direction is to educate all our hardware "engineers" who come to our homes on how to install and deploy desktop linux, preferably the distro which is going to be adopted by the schools. This will ensure that on site support is available, and learning at schools in continuous at home. Imagine going back to Windows only PC at home, at least it should be dual boot.

A natural fallout of all this is ISPs will have to be sensitive to the issues faced by linux users and stop promoting windows only hardware

 

[praka123]

Also the Kerala State Cyber Team should setup a good quality website with tutorials and videos on linux so that students can visit and learn about linux. Maybe even provide interesting Educational CDs with Videos and audio material to students. Otherwise the effort may be a damp squib.

Here is the site though they seems experimenting :
*www.space-kerala.org/
and Linux Helpdesk:
*support.space-kerala.org/

and I never will say if someone's personal choice is window$ -it is OK.
even central gov syllabus schools(which are soon gonna be taken over to kerala syllabus dumping cbse,ncert whatever! 8) ) insists on u put ur b*tt on windows are experimenting with GNU/Linux distros these days!a welcome change

but this unwanted weeds like spreading of windows via piracy and its troubles(including weak OS, and buying $$$$ worth licenses) wherever we find this "old species" of OS which should be dumped out of earth

 

[ilugd]

See I now use linux full time on both my home and office systems. I love linux and am learning a lot. I also support windows maintenance and administration on over 20 systems in my office and over 100 in my region for my office. So I am not biased.

All I say to the fanboys is, "May the best OS win!"
If linux is good enough, evolution will make sure that it gets it place. If not, windows will rule. Either way it works out good to have competition.

And NucleusKore, thanks for all those affirmations. You just made me stand a little bit taller.

 

[praka123]

You may add any point..but it is universal truth. Windows has better support. And I think game is essential part of life. I cant imagine my life without PC games. And yes, linux do have very less software in compare to windows.

I pity on this adement behaviour ! what support of M$haft are u advocating,eh?format-reinstall routine?do u have nothing new to say rather than defending ur Yajaman?

Linux software's -just check any repository of any linux distro.go,use Linux and come here to protect M$haft get some points before spitting FUDs!

 

[gxsaurav]

Aaaaaaaaaaah!! Gotcha! They do in many more ways than one. Do you know how many developers are on their payroll? Do you know the contribution of Novell? and RedHat

Yes, there own developers. Not someone like Joe Coder.

You can install RedHat Linux or SLED without getting sued by them as the OS is open source. You just won't get support, that's all. CentOS is a port of RHEL in case you did not know.

Yup, they charge for support. Isn't that what MS also does???? So why MS is evil but not red hat

Yes I am aware, BUT THEY STILL HAVE TO PAY!! How much for the OS? And I remember seeing the cost of Microsoft Office Teacher and Student edition on their website, Rs. 7500 ? Is that cheap?

Show me the website plz, or r u converting $ to Rs.

 

[NucleusKore]

And NucleusKore, thanks for all those affirmations. You just made me stand a little bit taller.

You're welcome.

Just for the record, I am a genuine Windows XP home user, but I run on Open SuSE or CentOS most of the time.

I carry a nimbleX cd with me to college and boot from it and browse as I do not fancy my passwords being stolen.

I provide free support Windows and Linux to staff and students in my college, if they get their laptops to me. I provide free telephone support too provided they make the call. With windows I focus more on prevention than cure, which is why I have become popular - educating people about antivirus and firewalls (they think windows firewall is enough ), using genuine software - if you cannot afford office use open office. I also distribute Linux at my cost price - Rs. 10/CD (MORE) and Rs. 20/DVD (SONY).

And like I said earlier, if Microsoft wants to provide Windows, and maybe Office free of cost to schools and their students they'll be more than welcome.

Show me the website plz, or r u converting $ to Rs.

[size=+1]Ok its not Rs. 7500 any more, but Rs. 5000/- isn't CHEAP![/size]
*www.buyoriginalms.com/office2007homestudentedition.aspx

 

[ravi_9793]

I pity on this adement behaviour ! what support of M$haft are u advocating,eh?format-reinstall routine?do u have nothing new to say rather than defending ur Yajaman?

I have not done any reinstall for 1 and half year. Its just how you use your windows.

 

[gxsaurav]

I pity on this adement behaviour ! what support of M$haft are u advocating,eh?format-reinstall routine?

I pity at your ignorance.

 

[Cyrus_the_virus]

I pity at your ignorance.

*gigasmilies.googlepages.com/21.gif

Aren't you the same guy who said gmail doesn't have pop and IMAP because of your ignorance in only using Live mail? *gigasmilies.googlepages.com/21.gif

Aren't you also the same guy who argued that Sony owns the cell architecture because of your ignorance in staying locked to windows 32bit hardware? *gigasmilies.googlepages.com/21.gif

Now, who's ignorance did you say you were pitying? *gigasmilies.googlepages.com/78.gif

 

[praka123]

^its better to avoid core f@nboys else,ur words will be wasted!

 

[kalpik]

I can see how frustrated win only fans are reading this I feel pity for them!

I am proud of my state

What Kerala gov did was the need of the second!
also,M$haft winblow$ is used by many pvt schools along with Linux,JFYI!

Now I know why,M$haft and its devils raided in trivendrum for piracy,fcuk u M$haft,ur finished

regarding the distro used:
it is called it@school which is a custom debian remastered(like Ubuntu too) containing more debian-edu packages.

Now students are gonna learn the correct ideology and knowing what FREEDOM is!unlike devils own M$haft monopoly!

Prakash, please keep it clean.

@everyone, please keep the discussion on-topic.

 

[Hitboxx]

OMG, look at you guys, taking the topic from where to where. Cut it loose, praka and gx always at each others throatx.

Guess I don't have much to comment except score +1 for Linux and OSS.

 

[kumarmohit]

Fanboyism aside, I am one of the people who think the principle of freedom of choice on which Linux is based is much more important than Linux or the entire FOSS movement itself. I guess teaching only Linux brings it down to the level of Microsoft.

The real freedom would be to teach both solutions to students for three years say class 6,7,8. from 9 onwards, let them choose the platform.

An do not give me that 'Govt has no money and they want to cut cost' thing. What the fcuk do they charge so many taxes for! And not to mention that there is a 0.24% education cess on service tax as well.

And what is the need of purchasing new licenses any way. Almost all the schools have licenses already. What is the need of wiping them. Has not the IT and eduction minsters of Kerala heard of something called dual booty computer. There would be absolutely no need.

The very spirit of FOSS is freedom of choice. If FOSS becomes a monopoly, I guess all of us people who believe in freedom have gone horribly wrong somewhere.

Remember that freedom is more important than the tools used to obtain it.

 

[ravi_9793]

The real freedom would be to teach both solutions to students for three years say class 6,7,8. from 9 onwards, let them choose the platform.

+1

An do not give me that 'Govt has no money and they want to cut cost' thing. What the fcuk do they charge so many taxes for! And not to mention that there is a 0.24% education cess on service tax as well.

Again +1

And what is the need of purchasing new licenses any way. Almost all the schools have licenses already. What is the need of wiping them. Has not the IT and eduction minsters of Kerala heard of something called dual booty computer. There would be absolutely no need.

Again point.

 

[mediator]

So, Linux is good....but making money through Linux is bad, so isn't Read Hat as evil as Microsoft? Red hat only supports RPM officially in Fedora, why can't they give the user a choice & let him use deb only system.

*www.smileyhut.com/laughing/rofl.gif . Do u even realize what fedora is?

If FOSS becomes a monopoly, I guess all of us people who believe in freedom have gone horribly wrong somewhere.

Remember that freedom is more important than the tools used to obtain it.

U didn't understand the topic I guess. Its not FOSS which is bringing a "monopoly", but a decision by a state! When did FOSS come in between??

U can rip apart ur OS, crack it, pirate it, or install OSS or use the traditional registers,pen and paper. Its ur decision!!

An do not give me that 'Govt has no money and they want to cut cost' thing. What the fcuk do they charge so many taxes for! And not to mention that there is a 0.24% education cess on service tax as well.

MS-Windows = Rs. ____?
Antivirus = Rs. _____?
MS Office = Rs _____?
etc etc = Rs _____?
All debated and discussed! I wud really like u to tell me if we shud really ignore this money matter thing, even if the school has say 50 computers. How many schools does the state have? Please calculate it all, show ur report and then say "do not give me that 'Govt has no money and they want to cut cost' thing".

And NucleusKore, thanks for all those affirmations. You just made me stand a little bit taller.

LOL