Ministry of Information Technology organized a meeting, called `Linux India Initiative' where more than 40 people from various depts of govt IITs, NCST, BARC, CDAC, NIC, main companies like IBM, redhat, netcore, exocore etc., and also from the state govts (secreatary level representatives.) It was rather surprising that there is so much of awareness in the Govt circles. This meeting tookplace in Delhi in the Electronics Niketan close to the Nehru Stadium on Lodhi Road.
Mr. S. Ramakrishnan (popularly known as Ramki) made the only presentation in the meeting. His presentation displayed that he did his home work very well, and the presentation was comprehensive. He listed various advantages of using OSS. He made it clear in the beginning itself that Linux actually stands for GNU/Linux, and so it should be understood as inclusive of GNU and not exclusive. Later Mr. Shaw (secretary MIT) chaired the meeting that went on from 3pm to 6.15pm. He took notes of almost all the speakers points and appeared serious. Prof. Sivakumar from IIT Mumbai, Barua of IIT Gauhati, were the prominent members from the Academia. Issues such as support, GUI, security, localization, took the attention of most speakers. Also since the Chairman explicilty asked every one to respond to GUI and security concerns.
Keyur Shroff from NCST made a brief presentation on localization work being done at NCST, and Atul Chitnis of Exocore also made very good points.
Two volumes containing several documents downloaded from the internet are circulated to the participatns. This also included some pages from our own website.
I represented the users community and FSF India. The points mentioned by me were as follows:
General Comments:
Why cost should not be the sole reason for promoting the use of Free (Swatantra) Software?
Most people argue in favor of Free Software because of the cost factor. This should not be the sole reason for promoting free software. Achieving self-reliance is often very pain-staking and difficult path. India's success stories in Space and Atomic energy are good illustrations in this regard. We don't and we should not do `cost of ownership' analysis on our path towards self-reliance. We should run for the values enshrined in our constitution, such as `self-reliance', even if they are expensive. Incidentally, though, free software is several times economical than Proprietary software.
Why the expression `Linux India Initiative' is not appropriate?
The term `Linux' refers to only one of the free kernels available, though the most popular. `BSD' does not use the Linux kernel, but is also a free OS. Another free kernel called HURD is also being developed by the GNU community.
Since most applications that run on GNU/Linux also run on several OSs, including MS Windows, it is not appropriate to use only `Linux.' We should promote the use of free software even on propreitary OS. Most users who are already using MS windows can also use most of free software, though it is desirable to use a free OS in the long run.
My suggestion is to use `Swatantra Software Initiative'. One of the main reasons why we should go for using Free Software is not merely because of the economic implications, but its use gives the users freedom, and self-reliance.
The English expression ``Free Software Initiative'' also is not appropriate because, the term `free' is ambiguous, for in most widely used contexts it refers to `free of cost/charge'.
Since India is committed to self-reliance it will be appropriate to use `Swatantra'.
There are a few blocks in the road of taking Swatantra software to various corners of ICT use, such as the following:
Using documents encoded in proprietary format, preventing free usage of data across different OS. This also encourages monopoly and facilitates lock-in.
Most IT training institutions provide training mostly emphasizing or exclusively on proprietary applications.
The syllabus in several colleges and Universities knowingly or unknowingly mentions not the neutral descriptions of what the student is supposed to learn, but names of proprietary applications. E.g., Excell in place of spreadsheets, or Ms-Word in place of word processor, Oracle in place of SQL, etc. At least in all Govt controlled institutions a policy should be made against this practice.
A policy decision/discussion should happen regarding the software that is being developed within the Govt organizations, and its possible release under GPL or similar protected forms of free software license.
The Annexure-I already contains several broad issues for discussion. Having supported the spread of Free software in the country for several years, and keeping in mind my expertise and the mandate of the institution (Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai) where I am working, I wish to contribute in whatever form on the following:
Setting up of Resource Centres SIG in Education sector (including schools) Introduction in curricula of engineering colleges, universities and colleges.
I do hope that some thing meaningful will come out of this Initiative. Mr. Ramki also mentioned in the notes that are curculated that setting up of foundations like FSF India.
Nagarjuna