I had filed an RTI in mantralaya with the following questions

1. Total Expenditures on the purchase (including update or license fee) of Operating system Microsoft Windows all versions in the financial year 1013-14 2. Total Expenditures on the purchase (including update or license fee) of Microsoft Office all versions in the financial year 1013-14. 3. Total numbers of personal computers in working computers at present. 4. Total number of personal computers running on free and open source operating system

The answer I obtained is as follows.

1. OS pre-installed so no separate expenditure incurred 2 MS Office 2,45,69296/- Rs 3 There are 31 PC's running in DIT 4. Nil

I filed in DIT section hoping that DIT will approve all purchases in mantralaya hence I will get total expediture in mantralaya. But it seems they have given purchases only in DIT. But then how 31 PC's require 2,45,69296/- Rs Software ?

Our education policy clearly recommends FOSS right from 2012 and states that no proprietary product names are to be referred in curriculum.

This has been violated seriously for last three years.

I have filed a Public Interest Litigation in Bombay High court (Next Date is 4 Feb 15)

PIL/141/2015 on 6 Aug 2015.

The petitioner submits that he was required to complete MS-ACIT course in order to get selection grade. Accordingly the petitioner took admission to MS-ACIT course in July 2011. During the course the Petitioner was shocked to realize that the course seemed nothing but an advertisement of proprietary software and the course was using teachers as instruments to promote proprietary software. It was a serious violation of National Policy on ICT in School Education which clearly recommends FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) instead of Proprietary software. The Petitioner started making teachers aware of this violation as he realized that the implications of this violation of policy would cause a huge damage to our Education System, to the Society and in turn to our beloved Nation. But due to lack of sufficient knowledge of ICT, most of the teachers were ignorant and could not understand the importance of this issue. The petitioner kept on studying this issue for a long time and recently decided to raise it after procuring a Notification of MHRD School-5 section, dated 17.06.14 (Annexure A) which supported the views of the petitioner in toto. Further he learnt that our country has been taking tremendous efforts through C-DAC (Centre of Development of Advanced Computing, Ministry of Information and Technology) to promote FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) in all fields including Education by releasing India’s own Free and Open Source Operating System with pre-installed software: “Bharat Operating System Solutions” or BOSS an Indianized Version of Linux. (www.bosslinux.in ) The petitioner has been using BOSS 5.0 (Codenamed Anokha) for last six months and he is proud to state here that our country’s own operating system BOSS is a perfect replacement for other proprietary operating systems. To consolidate his claim he wrote to Honorable Chief Minister of Tamilnadu and sought a feedback regarding BOSS as the Tamilnadu Government has been using BOSS in all its offices since 12.03.2014. Copy of the same is annexed and marked as Annexure – B to this Petition. The petitioner is pleased to inform to this Honorable Court that in the feedback, Tamilnadu Government officially stated that BOSS is indeed a perfect replacement for any Proprietary Operating System. Copy of the same is annexed and marked as Annexure – C to this Petition. The petitioner submits that the Respondent No. 2 state has not included India’s Own competent EduBOSS (a special version of BOSS for Education) or BOSS in MS-ACIT syllabus for teachers and instead preferred to violate the National Policy in ICT Education by inviting proprietary software. The petitioner submits that the honorable Supreme Court of India is using a Free and Open Source Operating System Ubuntu Linux for all courts in the country including all courts in Maharashtra. To avoid further damage to Education System, to save Huge Public Funds and to avoid Permanent Dependency on proprietary software vendors, the petitioner has no alternative than to resort file the present Public Interest Litigation.

Relief (s) prayed for:- The Petitioner therefore prays that: i) That this Hon’ble Court be pleased to invoke it’s Writ Jurisdiction under article 226 of the Constitution of India and issue a Writ of Mandamus or any other Writ, order or direction in the nature of Mandamus and be pleased to : a) To direct Respondent No. 2 State of Maharashtra to follow Annexure – A by removing all proprietary software product names from the syllabi of MSA-CIT / MS-CIT (Maharashtra State Certificate in Information Technology), schools, colleges, universities and other Govt. recognized education institutions and other State Govt. offices and institutions. b) To stay the purchased order issued by Govt. of Maharashtra to Proprietary Software Vendors. c) To take action against the Govt. officers who have introduced Proprietary Software Vendors in spite of directions issued in Annexure – A on 17.06.2014 by Central Govt. to use FOSS. d) To discontinue contracts awarded to Proprietary Software companies who violated directions of Union of India given in Annexure – A. ii) For ad-interim, interim reliefs in terms of prayer clause I (b) (c), & (d) hereinabove. For such other and further reliefs as deemed fit and proper by this Hon’ble Court on the facts and circumstances of the case. Cost of this Petition be provided for.

On 12/24/15 11:04, Rushabh Mehta wrote:

Just wanted to check if anyone has done a recent survey on how much Gov of Mah spends annually on licenses to MS/Oracle/SAP etc to build a case for Free Software.

Also if there are any old timers around, was the Kerala FOSS model tried to be replicated here with insistence of Free Software in Schools?

thanks, Rushabh

Great work Milind. If GoM is spending 2.5cr just in Mantralaya, then we can imagine how much it would be for all departments, corporations, PSUs owned by GoM. If we calculate all expenses for licenses to other replaceable tools like Oracle, it should easily be 100s of crores per year.

Please let us know how we can get more involved as a community. I am inspired by the net neutrality activists who are standing up to Facebook. We need more such multi-level activism like approach to stop the license companies from bleeding our governments and foreign exchange.

Thanks!

Sent from phone

On 26-Dec-2015, at 5:17 PM, Milind Oka oak445@gmail.com wrote:

I had filed an RTI in mantralaya with the following questions

1. Total Expenditures on the purchase (including update or license fee) of Operating system Microsoft Windows all versions in the financial year 1013-14
2. Total Expenditures on the purchase (including update or license fee) of Microsoft Office all versions in the financial year 1013-14.
3. Total numbers of personal computers in working computers at present.
4. Total number of personal computers running on free and open source operating system

The answer I obtained is as follows.

1. OS pre-installed so no separate expenditure incurred

2 MS Office 2,45,69296/- Rs 3 There are 31 PC's running in DIT 4. Nil

I filed in DIT section hoping that DIT will approve all purchases in mantralaya hence I will get total expediture in mantralaya. But it seems they have given purchases only in DIT. But then how 31 PC's require 2,45,69296/- Rs Software ?

Our education policy clearly recommends FOSS right from 2012 and states that no proprietary product names are to be referred in curriculum.

This has been violated seriously for last three years.

I have filed a Public Interest Litigation in Bombay High court (Next Date is 4 Feb 15)

PIL/141/2015 on 6 Aug 2015.

The petitioner submits that he was required to complete MS-ACIT course in order to get selection grade. Accordingly the petitioner took admission to MS-ACIT course in July 2011. During the course the Petitioner was shocked to realize that the course seemed nothing but an advertisement of proprietary software and the course was using teachers as instruments to promote proprietary software. It was a serious violation of National Policy on ICT in School Education which clearly recommends FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) instead of Proprietary software. The Petitioner started making teachers aware of this violation as he realized that the implications of this violation of policy would cause a huge damage to our Education System, to the Society and in turn to our beloved Nation. But due to lack of sufficient knowledge of ICT, most of the teachers were ignorant and could not understand the importance of this issue. The petitioner kept on studying this issue for a long time and recently decided to raise it after procuring a Notification of MHRD School-5 section, dated 17.06.14 (Annexure A) which supported the views of the petitioner in toto. Further he learnt that our country has been taking tremendous efforts through C-DAC (Centre of Development of Advanced Computing, Ministry of Information and Technology) to promote FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) in all fields including Education by releasing India’s own Free and Open Source Operating System with pre-installed software: “Bharat Operating System Solutions” or BOSS an Indianized Version of Linux. (www.bosslinux.in ) The petitioner has been using BOSS 5.0 (Codenamed Anokha) for last six months and he is proud to state here that our country’s own operating system BOSS is a perfect replacement for other proprietary operating systems. To consolidate his claim he wrote to Honorable Chief Minister of Tamilnadu and sought a feedback regarding BOSS as the Tamilnadu Government has been using BOSS in all its offices since 12.03.2014. Copy of the same is annexed and marked as Annexure – B to this Petition. The petitioner is pleased to inform to this Honorable Court that in the feedback, Tamilnadu Government officially stated that BOSS is indeed a perfect replacement for any Proprietary Operating System. Copy of the same is annexed and marked as Annexure – C to this Petition. The petitioner submits that the Respondent No. 2 state has not included India’s Own competent EduBOSS (a special version of BOSS for Education) or BOSS in MS-ACIT syllabus for teachers and instead preferred to violate the National Policy in ICT Education by inviting proprietary software. The petitioner submits that the honorable Supreme Court of India is using a Free and Open Source Operating System Ubuntu Linux for all courts in the country including all courts in Maharashtra. To avoid further damage to Education System, to save Huge Public Funds and to avoid Permanent Dependency on proprietary software vendors, the petitioner has no alternative than to resort file the present Public Interest Litigation.

Relief (s) prayed for:- The Petitioner therefore prays that: i) That this Hon’ble Court be pleased to invoke it’s Writ Jurisdiction under article 226 of the Constitution of India and issue a Writ of Mandamus or any other Writ, order or direction in the nature of Mandamus and be pleased to : a) To direct Respondent No. 2 State of Maharashtra to follow Annexure – A by removing all proprietary software product names from the syllabi of MSA-CIT / MS-CIT (Maharashtra State Certificate in Information Technology), schools, colleges, universities and other Govt. recognized education institutions and other State Govt. offices and institutions. b) To stay the purchased order issued by Govt. of Maharashtra to Proprietary Software Vendors. c) To take action against the Govt. officers who have introduced Proprietary Software Vendors in spite of directions issued in Annexure – A on 17.06.2014 by Central Govt. to use FOSS. d) To discontinue contracts awarded to Proprietary Software companies who violated directions of Union of India given in Annexure – A. ii) For ad-interim, interim reliefs in terms of prayer clause I (b) (c), & (d) hereinabove. For such other and further reliefs as deemed fit and proper by this Hon’ble Court on the facts and circumstances of the case. Cost of this Petition be provided for.

...

On 12/24/15 11:04, Rushabh Mehta wrote: Just wanted to check if anyone has done a recent survey on how much Gov of Mah spends annually on licenses to MS/Oracle/SAP etc to build a case for Free Software.

Also if there are any old timers around, was the Kerala FOSS model tried to be replicated here with insistence of Free Software in Schools?

thanks, Rushabh

-- http://mm.ilug-bom.org.in/mailman/listinfo/linuxers

Milind,

Thanks for your reply. There are 2 issues here:

Promotion of FOSS:

1. For this what would be a great motivation is if we are able to find the total amount of money spent on licensing. Maybe more RTIs? I think we can form a group to find this out.

2. Building a site like http://www.savetheinternet.in/ http://www.savetheinternet.in/ that lists all the alternatives etc.

3. Creating awareness on social media. I understand most of the activism on FOSS was pre-social-media and I may be naive, but its worth a try.

Promotion of BOSS:

You forgot the most important question in your FAQ. Why BOSS?

Why is BOSS better than any standard Linux distribution? Taking an FOSS project and white-labeling it with your logo is hardly something we should be proud of.

Sorry to be a BOSS-spectic, but would be happy to learn more.

best, Rushabh

On 27-Dec-2015, at 11:35 PM, Milind Oka oak445@gmail.com wrote:

Thanks Rushabh and Dsouza for your kind and encouraging words.

I think every Indian can participate in this activity. The least thing that everyone can do is to make awareness of foss and boss. Write some articles, blogs, emails and send to your freinds. Let them know boss and foss

You know it is Indianized version of linux and also not perfect. It may be inferior to many other linux flavors. But most of the Indians who are only using computers for their basic needs, it is more than sufficient. So you can safely recommend them. They really enjoy the logo bharat on desktop.

Making it perfect is not a difficult task at all. But we know government will not do it unless we pressurize them.

Here is a brief description of my humble efforts, apart from PIL. You are always welcome to share your knowledge and efforts with us.

Thanks for your reply. There are 2 issues here:

Promotion of FOSS:

1. For this what would be a great motivation is if we are able to find the

total amount of money spent on licensing. Maybe more RTIs? I think we can form a group to find this out.

2. Building a site like http://www.savetheinternet.in/ <

http://www.savetheinternet.in/%3E that lists all the alternatives etc.

​i have had similar experiences with lack representation and capacity building have started working on a doc with some ideas are put here https://docs.google.com/document/d/122R6LHUE0MbdV2BlSKFdNS-998nxiYbKG9faumDc... ​. ​ cheers​ -Satya Satyaakam.net http://satyaakam.net/ | fossevents.in |

Milind, this is excellent work. You might also want to use the research done by Prof. Rahul De of IIM Bangalore on the economic impact of FOSS. His 2009 study which said that India can save $2 billion if it switches to FOSS is at:

http://www.iimb.ernet.in/~rahulde/RD_FOSSRep2009.pdf

Venky =====

On Sun, Dec 27, 2015 at 11:35 PM Milind Oka oak445@gmail.com wrote:

Thanks Rushabh and Dsouza for your kind and encouraging words.

I think every Indian can participate in this activity. The least thing that everyone can do is to make awareness of foss and boss. Write some articles, blogs, emails and send to your freinds. Let them know boss and foss

You know it is Indianized version of linux and also not perfect. It may be inferior to many other linux flavors. But most of the Indians who are only using computers for their basic needs, it is more than sufficient. So you can safely recommend them. They really enjoy the logo bharat on desktop.

Making it perfect is not a difficult task at all. But we know government will not do it unless we pressurize them.

Here is a brief description of my humble efforts, apart from PIL. You are always welcome to share your knowledge and efforts with us.

---

Bharat Operating System Solutions

How can you help us ?

The moment we started promotion of boss, India's own operating system, people have kindly started offering their help to our informal group. Most of them asked one question again and again.

Can I help this activity if I have little or no knowledge of computers ?

We are very happy to welcome you since we really require help from every citizen of India. BOSS is ....of the people by the people and for the people of India.

There are so many areas where you can help us. We require teachers, orators, writers, lawyers, team leaders, artists etc. If you think you do not have any such skill then you are probably wrong. Just join our group and you will soon learn one such skill.

Group : Bharat Oerating System

Step 1 : How to join ?

The first step required is to install Telegram on your smart phone. Telegram is an application similar to Whats App. We prefer Telegram because it is open source and not commercial product like whats app or hike.

If you don't have smart phone, no problem, you can still install and use telegram through your laptop and desktop or both ! But you require mobile number to register.

If you have difficulty in installing telegram, contact any of our members or local guru who will teach you complete the first step. It is very easy to install telegram.

Step 2 : What Next ?

Read discussion on the group. You will find all sort of people in the discussion. Goal is one - To help people in removing Microsoft, Install BOSS and use BOSS in everyday life. You can share your ideas here on the group on how to achieve this goal. You may find lot of technical discussion. You may ask questions or put your opinion.

Please stay with us for some time and you will eventually be familiar with this activity and start enjoying it.

If you can contact 10 to 12 group members in your area, then form similar group starting your activities independently for example - BOSS-Banglore,BOSS-Pune etc. After that all of your members need not stay on this group. Only one will be here to keep in touch. Others will quit voluntarily in order to make place for new members.

Step 3 : Covering the whole Country

If you are a beginner, you will be surprised to know that all boss supporters of our country of 135 crores can stay connected simultaneously with application like whats app. This is called as Internet Relay Chat (IRC). You will learn how to use IRC along with telegram. You can learn or teach others remotely using IRC.

Our country has made a separate channel for BOSS users on IRC server 'freenode'. Channel is named as #boss-nrcfoss. Once you master Telegram and IRC you can start your own journey with your own plans to spread boss and help in the digital progress of our contry.

This activity will implement BOSS throughout the country achieving digital literacy, eradicating digital slavery imposed by 'Microsoft'. Thus making our country truly independent.

From software experts, we expect various free and open source software applications that we need in everyday life and can be run on linux systems, preferably on BOSS.

To start with, we in SIWS college,Mumbai, have developed a free and open source Result software for schools and colleges which runs on BOSS. The individual mark lists can be prepared on smart phones and transferred to result committee via email.

We give free assistance to schools and colleges with the condition that they have to install BOSS on at least two machines and prepare result on it and also they should give free assistance to nearby schools and colleges in implementing this software.

The idea has been instantly accepted by teachers and students of our college and by KC college students and teachers. Both are working together now on Bharat group. Many more colleges and schools have started showing interest.

To join let me know your telegram number. I will add you to 'Bharat Operating System'.

My no. is 8652305696

Beginners and Experts all are welcome.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.refort.MarkList&hl=en

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhJJ0-xbbbE

Thank you

Milind

On 12/26/15 22:24, Rushabh Mehta wrote:

...

Great work Milind. If GoM is spending 2.5cr just in Mantralaya, then we

can imagine how much it would be for all departments, corporations, PSUs owned by GoM. If we calculate all

---

-- http://mm.ilug-bom.org.in/mailman/listinfo/linuxers