On Saturday 21 March 2009 17:26:57 Debayan Banerjee wrote:
please give the url of *one* kerala government site where I can download all the wonderful 'foss' software they claim to have developed? Just using linux and php to develop proprietary software doesnt cut it.
One thing we gotta realise is that we should only expect as much concern for FOSS philosophy from their side as much concern FOSS guys have for communist (or any political) ideology.
I do not give a rf for foss philosophy. State A uses public money and spends 5 crores developing an application to computerise land records. It runs on linux and uses free software tools. State A keeps the software proprietary. State B, instead of downloading state A's stuff and spending 50 lakh to customise it, spends another 5 crores. Given that there are around 30 states, calculate. I dont give another rf about the tools. If a State developed an application in .net running on doze and released the code, I would be happy.
A governemt has so many things to take care of and if a minister takes time to understand in detail the merits of FOSS philosophy (not technology) hats off to him for it is something that even FOSS developers/users dont often appreciate.
I have interacted with the said minister - he hasn't understood a thing about foss.
Also, there are similarities between FOSS ideeology and communist ideology and thank god for that.
what similarities are there? I cannot see a single one