Indian Government Keen on Open Source

[lonewolf]

This is for all the open source enthusiasts in here and those that are curious.



SOURCE: http://slashdot.org/



"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.'"

The Indian government is trying to encourage the use of computers across the country by distributing free CDs that contain localized versions of popular open-source applications.

The government has started distributing CDs containing Tamil-language versions of various open-source applications, including the Firefox browser, the OpenOffice.org productivity suite and the Columba e-mail client. It plans to freely distribute 3.5 million copies of the CD to Tamil speakers worldwide, according to R.K.V.S. Raman, a researcher at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, a Bangalore-based organization involved in the production of the CD.

Raman told ZDNet UK on Wednesday that the CDs have been in considerable demand following a newspaper-and-television advertising campaign last month.

"We have had a tremendous response to this (initiative)," he said. "In the first two weeks of the campaign we got about 100,000 hits daily on the Web site offering CDs, and about 2,000 to 3,000 downloads (of Tamil-language applications). We have already sent out around 50,000 CDs and have a backlog of 35,000."

Once the requested CDs have been sent out, more copies will be distributed with computer magazines and newspapers, according to Raman.

Even the president of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, has taken an interest in the project and earlier this month met the team involved in the production of the CD.

The next stage of the project is to distribute CDs containing applications in Hindi, the national language of India. This stage will be launched on June 21 and likely will involve more than the 3.5 million CDs earmarked for the current phase, said Raman. Eventually, the government plans to release CDs in all of the 22 official languages of India.



I think this is great news for many computer users, especially developers.

Also, do we have any Open Source groups in Hyderabad... LUG or similar?



~lonewolf

[ycr007]

This is indeed great news for all the Computing Enthusiasts.This Step will for sure increase the awareness levels among the people as far as Open Source & Free Software is concerned.



CDAC Is at the forefront of OSS Development and The Purpose of my Visit to Chennai was for an Interview/Exam for Open Source Developer Trainee at their Banagalore R & D Center.



At the Exam/Interview,I came across many Budding OSS Enthusiasts who were keen on forming a niche group for Like-Minded people.As soon as that is up n Running,I'll let u know.

[lonewolf]

This is indeed great news for all the Computing Enthusiasts.This Step will for sure increase the awareness levels among the people as far as Open Source & Free Software is concerned.

CDAC Is at the forefront of OSS Development and The Purpose of my Visit to Chennai was for an Interview/Exam for Open Source Developer Trainee at their Banagalore R & D Center.

At the Exam/Interview,I came across many Budding OSS Enthusiasts who were keen on forming a niche group for Like-Minded people.As soon as that is up n Running,I'll let u know.

Thanks ycr! Oh, I forgot to add that the CDs that the Indian government will distribute are going to be FREE In fact the original news item on CNET says



Free CDs spread open source in India



The average Indian can finally give a shot at OSS without spending any money on bandwidth or shopping/handling.

[fl]

This is indeed great news for all the Computing Enthusiasts.This Step will for sure increase the awareness levels among the people as far as Open Source & Free Software is concerned.

CDAC Is at the forefront of OSS Development and The Purpose of my Visit to Chennai was for an Interview/Exam for Open Source Developer Trainee at their Banagalore R & D Center.

At the Exam/Interview,I came across many Budding OSS Enthusiasts who were keen on forming a niche group for Like-Minded people.As soon as that is up n Running,I'll let u know.

Thanks ycr! Oh, I forgot to add that the CDs that the Indian government will distribute are going to be FREE In fact the original news item on CNET says

Free CDs spread open source in India

The average Indian can finally give a shot at OSS without spending any money on bandwidth or shopping/handling.

It is a good news that these are being distributed for free... but without a broadband connection it will not be easy to use these things. most flavors of linux need constant updation as most of the distros have some problem or the other... like the latest fedora release doesnot have mp3 support and it is not as easy to run a linux box as a windoze one.CtrlAltDel wont solve all the problems on it. what is required is its inclusion in engg curriculum. if the engg colleges start using it first then u can expect others to follow.

[ycr007]

So How to get the CD's ? Do we have to Ask for Copies to be sent at their website as with Micro$oft SP's??

[lonewolf]

It is a good news that these are being distributed for free... but without a broadband connection it will not be easy to use these things. most flavors of linux need constant updation as most of the distros have some problem or the other... like the latest fedora release doesnot have mp3 support and it is not as easy to run a linux box as a windoze one.CtrlAltDel wont solve all the problems on it. what is required is its inclusion in engg curriculum. if the engg colleges start using it first then u can expect others to follow.

Ubunt Linux shipped 5 copies of their free CDs to me from Switzerland when I emailed them. You can ask for any number of copies and you'll get them free. Its all free, you pay nothing! Just wait for 2 or 3 weeks to get the CDs. Shipping takes time



The site for Ubuntu Linux is http://www.ubuntulinux.com.



About updating, you don't really need to update/upgrade every week if you're using a version that is not unstable. In fact, the unstable Debian flavours are more stable than Mandrake or Fedora equivalents. I've never had a problem with Debian Sid, which is supposed to be the 'unstable' version.



~lonewolf

[ycr007]

Yes,I Did Order 10 Ubuntu CD's Some time ago



But Still waiting for them......



There're Two Mags Digit & Chip that provide Linux Distros on DVD's Everymonth....

[lonewolf]

Yes,I Did Order 10 Ubuntu CD's Some time ago

But Still waiting for them......

You'll get them soon. Are you active on any Linux forums? I think that expedites the shipping.

There're Two Mags Digit & Chip that provide Linux Distros on DVD's Everymonth....

DVDs?? There are many people who still have CD-ROM drives and *not* DVD drives. Why the DVDs??

[ycr007]

Yes,I Did Order 10 Ubuntu CD's Some time ago

But Still waiting for them......

You'll get them soon. Are you active on any Linux forums? I think that expedites the shipping.

Nope....Haven't yet become a Linux Enthu Yet....Hope to Learn abt it & Using it soon....

There're Two Mags Digit & Chip that provide Linux Distros on DVD's Everymonth....

DVDs?? There are many people who still have CD-ROM drives and *not* DVD drives. Why the DVDs??

Bot the mags Give a DVD & 2 CD's.Since the Distros are Large in Size,they give DVD's and There's been a Helluva Debate on their Respective Forums gerading CD Versus DVD. Most Ppl Do have DVD's Nowadays

[fl]

It is a good news that these are being distributed for free... but without a broadband connection it will not be easy to use these things. most flavors of linux need constant updation as most of the distros have some problem or the other... like the latest fedora release doesnot have mp3 support and it is not as easy to run a linux box as a windoze one.CtrlAltDel wont solve all the problems on it. what is required is its inclusion in engg curriculum. if the engg colleges start using it first then u can expect others to follow.

Ubunt Linux shipped 5 copies of their free CDs to me from Switzerland when I emailed them. You can ask for any number of copies and you'll get them free. Its all free, you pay nothing! Just wait for 2 or 3 weeks to get the CDs. Shipping takes time

The site for Ubuntu Linux is http://www.ubuntulinux.com.

About updating, you don't really need to update/upgrade every week if you're using a version that is not unstable. In fact, the unstable Debian flavours are more stable than Mandrake or Fedora equivalents. I've never had a problem with Debian Sid, which is supposed to be the 'unstable' version.

~lonewolf

hmm

never tried this distro

i think gentoo is the best one

takes some time to install but once u install it u will see the diff btwn a package based distro and one u build from scratch and compile everything

its so good i havint changed my os in 2yrs

[enriquee]

definitely a good move by our government.... hope this really boosts the use of computers across the country...

[lonewolf]

It is a good news that these are being distributed for free... but without a broadband connection it will not be easy to use these things. most flavors of linux need constant updation as most of the distros have some problem or the other... like the latest fedora release doesnot have mp3 support and it is not as easy to run a linux box as a windoze one.CtrlAltDel wont solve all the problems on it. what is required is its inclusion in engg curriculum. if the engg colleges start using it first then u can expect others to follow.

Ubunt Linux shipped 5 copies of their free CDs to me from Switzerland when I emailed them. You can ask for any number of copies and you'll get them free. Its all free, you pay nothing! Just wait for 2 or 3 weeks to get the CDs. Shipping takes time

The site for Ubuntu Linux is http://www.ubuntulinux.com.

About updating, you don't really need to update/upgrade every week if you're using a version that is not unstable. In fact, the unstable Debian flavours are more stable than Mandrake or Fedora equivalents. I've never had a problem with Debian Sid, which is supposed to be the 'unstable' version.

~lonewolf

hmm
never tried this distro
i think gentoo is the best one
takes some time to install but once u install it u will see the diff btwn a package based distro and one u build from scratch and compile everything
its so good i havint changed my os in 2yrs

Ubuntu is very easy to install. Even a newbie friend of mine had no problem installing it. Since it is a Debian derivative, you can use the apt-get commands. I've not tried it yet. I have a notebook running pure Debian AMD64 with XFCE 4.2. Ubuntu installs GNOME by default. The KDE version of Ubuntu is called Kubuntu.



I never liked the thought of compiling *EVERYTHING* from scratch. Gentoo takes 30 continuous hours to install, that is if everything goes right and you have the optimisations and params correct. In the end, there is not much performance difference between Debian and Gentoo, so I stick with Debian

[fl]

never tried deb

but there is a huge difference btwn distros like fedora, suse, mandrake and gentoo... and the installation is not much of a pain. get a cd based distro chroot to ur gentoo partition and compile in the background. u can watch movies while it compiles

and the main diff btwn gentoo and others is that everything works without having to resolve any conflicts. even simple things like xine dont work on most distros due to some liscene issues and u have to install them separtely. apt-get and synaptic are good but not as good as emerge:P

[lonewolf]