Information Society Watch
A Southern Lens on the Information SocietyIndia: Comrades open windows to Linux
October 9, 2006, The Financial Express
The Kerala Government is embarking an a policy directive which makes it mandatory for all state run schools to use open source platform instead of proprietary software. This follows a series of visits by FOSS founder Richard Stallman across the country to promote FOSS as a concept. Not surprisingly, the idea has found favour in most Left ruled states with Kerala being at the forefront. West Bengal and Tripura are expected to follow suit. While one welcomes these moves as they promise freedom from proprietary regimes which are prohibitively expensive, one cannot help but wonder if these steps are being taken as an ideological stance rather than a practical response. which should be the prime motivator for moving to FOSS. It also raises questions of political consistency questions such as ‘What is the guarantee that the same policy will continue even with change in administration?’